Crossworld Excrenia
by ChromaLuke
Summary: A few worlds that existed in a system were suddenly merged with each other by an unknown force, creating a new world altogether. Follow the heroes that came from different worlds along with two new heroes in their adventure as they fight their way to find their way home while saving the new world from destruction by the hands of their own nemesis. Ratings may change to M.
1. Chapter 1

**First of all, welcome to my second fanfic. For this fanfic, I will take in characters from the games that I've played and the animes and cartoons that I've watched(although more anime than cartoon). And since there will be a ton of characters here and there, please bear with me. I hope I got all the characters right. I mean, in the way of their personality and such. And about this fanfic, even though it says "Hyperdimension Neptunia & X-overs", there are actually two mains. The "Tales of" series and the "Hyperdimension Neptunia" series. All right then, enough chit-chat. Let's get this fanfic started.**

Update : I've recently found the BGM that I've always wanted to find. Now that I've found it, I've updated the song name, which still has no name, but hey, at least it's available on Youtube. Oh yeah, this chapter is now the first chapter instead of prologue chapter.

* * *

_In a galaxy far, far away, there existed a system that housed a few worlds. These worlds have been thriving in peace for as long as they existed. But one day, the center of the system is said to be inactive for a short while. But within that time, there was a tragedy. As the center of the system is inactive, the balance of the system has shattered. And so, all the worlds housed in it collided with each other. It was until the center became active again, the balance was restored. But the worlds all have changed. Instead of being destroyed however, those worlds have seemingly merged with each other thus, creating an all new world altogether._

_And this is a story of how the world works just after colliding, where the balance of nature is imbalanced. Since this world is a result of the merge of many worlds, the properties are all messed up. And now, the story begins at a random forest where we can see a man lying there, unconscious._

* * *

{Chapter 1 : The Lower Quarter Boy and The Genki Game Girl}

"Ugh... Ow..." On the forest floor, there is a man lying on the ground, unconscious. The man has long, black hair. He wears a black, long-sleeved shirt where the chest part is left loose we can barely see his chests. He also have a golden bracelet with a red gem in it in his left hand and in his right, an iron fist. He is now waking up.

"Ow... What...happened?" He takes a look around him to see trees stretching out to God-knows-where. "Where...am I? Argh, ow... My head... My body..." He gets up (with a little difficulty) and saw a sheathed katana lying beside him. He picks up the katana, but rather than putting it around his back, he merely holds the straps on the sheath and lets the sword hang freely. "Now let's see if I can get my bearing..." he said as he shields his eyes from the sunrays.

He walks around for a short distance until he saw an unconscious person lying not far from where he is. "Hey, you're all right there? Not dead, are you?" he called out rather flatly. He walks up to the person to find out it was a girl, who looks about 14. She has purple hair, wears white hoodies with USB strings, a pair of headphones on her neck, short purple skirt, long stockings with purple and white stripes and white shoes. She is lying inside a crater. (Man, can't this girl at least wear pants?) thought the man who shields his eyes after accidentally looked at the girl's visible undies. But that's not what he's concerned about. He's concerned about her safety.

"Hey, girl. Wake up! You're not seriously dead, are you? Hey, wake up!" the man's tone now shows concern over the little girl.

"Ugh... Argh...zzzZZZ"

"Phew. I thought you were dead." said the man in relief. "Hey, can you get up?"

"Aw... Just...five more minutes... ZZZZZZ"

(Even here she asks for five more minutes?) thought the man. "Hey, come on. Get up. We're in the wilderness for God's sake. This is no time to be playing around."

"Aw... All right, all right. This better be important." said the girl, who is finally waking up.

(Finally she wakes up.) thought the man while he sweatdropped.

{1}The girl, upon waking up, is surprised to see the man in front of him. "Whoa, how did a stranger get into my house? An intruder?"

"Wait, what? This is your house!?"

"What do you mean, of course this is my-" She stopped as she looked around to see that she is now in a forest. "...Where... Where are we?" asked the little girl, now looking afraid.

"So you don't know either... I figured so..."

"Wait, you're telling me you don't know either!? Wha- Ho- Whe- How did I get here? I was in my house, sleeping. No. Have I been sleepwalking?"

"Hey, hey, hey! You can't just sleepwalk into the depths of a forest like that. That's ridiculous." said the man as he facepalmed himself. "But same here. I was in an inn yesterday." He was holding his forehead as his head still hurts. "Man, there's gotta be some explanation to this..."

"Aw, crackers! This sucks." said the girl, looking rather annoyed at their current situation. But then the man just walks away in a random direction, leaving the girl behind. "Hey, where you going? D-Don't leave me here."

"Well, what does it look like? I'm gonna go walk a random direction until we find a way out of here. You should come with me. Unless you have a better idea, miss?"

"Come with you? I don't even know you. So, how should I trust you?"

"Now, now, I can assure you, I'm a good guy, kid. Anyway, my name is Yuri. Yuri Lowell. You?"

"I'm Neptune. So, uh... I guess staying here won't do any good, right? Okay, I think I'll go with you for now."

(Well, that escalated quickly...) thought Yuri as he sweatdropped again. "All right then, stick together. I don't want to have to drag someone's butt along on the way out."

"If there is a way out." Neptune continued Yuri's words.

"Thank you, Neptune, for the discouragement." he said rather sarcastically.

"Oh, come on. It's just a peasy-weasy forest. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

*rustlings of branches in nearby bushes*

"That."

"O...kay... This is getting a little bit cliched now..."

*rustlings of branches in nearby bushes*

"You better stay back. I don't want you to get hurt or get in my way." Yuri said in a serious tone as he reached for the hilt of the sword he's carrying. He swings it in such a way that the sword slides out of its sheath and the sheath is thrown to his side, then he lifts it and places the dull-edged side of the sword on his shoulder, getting into his battle stance. "Don't worry, just stay out of the way."

"Hey, don't treat me like I'm a kid!"

"But you are one, you know."

"Maybe, but I can handle myself just fine, you know." Neptune said, a little upset. She then reaches behind herself and magically a broadsword appears in her hand. She brings it forward, uses both hands to balance the weight of the sword, entering her battle stance. "I may not look much, but I'm a AP(Attack Power)-Tank, you know."

"Sure, sure. Hope you know what you're doing." said Yuri while questioning in his minds, (What the hell was she talking about? I wonder if people from where she's from say things like that? But if she says she's a tank, if she really is, then I guess she's all right then?) As he looks around for a possible encounter, more rustlings from bushes are heard. And then, there is this.

*roar*

{2}"Woah, what's that? Some monsters?"

"Yeah, I bet it's a tiger, judging from the roar just now."

And while he's close, he was not far from guessing it correctly as it was a roar, a roar that came from a lion, which then appears in front of them, looking ready to attack.

"Wow, I was close. It's a lion, it seems." he said as he lowers his body a bit.

"Well then, it's time for action."

Neptune is seen standing beside Yuri while there are standing in front of the lion. They are waiting for the lion to make the first move. But the lion is also waiting for Yuri and Neptune to make the first move. So they are kinda in a standstill for now.

"Oh god, when is the lion going to make the first move?" thought Yuri.

"Oh man, when will I get to beat the crap out of this thing?" thought Neptune.

"RAAAWWWRRR!(When will these humans make the first move?)" thought the lion.

As they are taking their time, they are getting impatient. So impatient that all of them just went on attacking at the same time. I mean, literally, all start attacking at the same instant. Yuri jumped over the lion and lands behind it, while Neptune, who didn't notice the lion was coming right at her, can only parry its attacks. She then pushed the lion away. Neptune then lands a slash on the lion at its leg, but it still moves as if the attack missed. As fast as lightning, Yuri lands a cut on the lion's body by slashing forward. The lion is now a bit hurt, but is still able to attack ferociously. It was about to pounce Neptune when...

"Oh no, you don't. Azure Edge!" Yuri charges his energy into his sword which turns to green, then launches a green projectile that comes out of the tip of his sword towards the lion. The lion roars in pain.

"Nepu~. Thanks, buddy. Good eye you got there."

"No problem. Be careful next time."

"Sure." But seeing the lion is dazed, Neptune seizes this moment to land an attack on the lion. "Here I come. Dual Edge!" She swings her sword to the left then quickly makes a spin slash. The lion roars in more pain. Seeing it is losing, the lion was about to move away when...

"Hah! Now you're finished! Wolf Strike!" He stabs the lion up front, then charges his right fist into the lion's chest, knocking it a distance away from him. The lion is still alive, but weak. But that's when Neptune finishes it with a last attack.

"You're not getting away. Oh, not on my watch, buddeh!" She then reaches her left hand to her left waist and then a gun magically appears in her hands. "Bye-bye, sucker. Flare Shot!" She shoots out a ball of fire from the gun, thus killing the lion.

Yuri walks up to the lion, checks its heartbeat, and even though he feels none, he just goes on giving the dead lion a few more slashes just to make sure it's really dead. "Well, it's dead now." he said after giving the dead lion a last kick to the stomach. He then walks towards Neptune. "Say, Nep. I didn't know you had a gun."

"Likewise. I didn't know you had a sword until you place it on your shoulder."

"I was carrying it the whole time." Yuri said while his eyes becomes a bit smaller, showing disbelief and annoyance, and sweatdropped. "You never noticed it?"

"Nope, I thought you were carrying a cricket bat or something." replied Neptune with a normal tone.

(Why do I have to be stuck with a girl this stupid!? Man, just how stupid is she?) Yuri thought as he keeps hitting his head to a nearby tree.

"Can't you, like, take a joke or something? Hehe... I was only joking..." said Neptune, worried that Yuri might have gone too far. Now it was Neptune's turn to sweatdrop.

**[Loading...]**

They have been walking for a few hours and still hasn't even found a clue to a way out. It seems that this forest is infinitely stretching out to God-knows-where.

"Can we stop walking please? I'm hungry..." said Neptune as she holds her growling stomach.

"Well, about time. I was wondering when you will bring that up. Not that I'm that much tired myself or anything." said Yuri with a sarcastic tone.

{3}"Wait. You were waiting for me to tell you to stop and rest this whole time!? But you're the leader. I thought you would be angry if I bring that up..." she said as she stopped walking to talk, looking sad.

"Now, now. I never said anything about not stopping until you drop." he said as he too stopped walking.

"But you said don't rest until you said so."

"What? Oh, yeah. Right. "So"."

"Huh? "So" what?"

""So". Come on, you said it yourself that you can't rest until I say "so", so I say "so". Get it?" Yuri said with a big smile on his face. Clapping his hands once, he said, "All right, you may rest for now."

"But that's not what I- Argh... Fine. Whatever. You win." Neptune gives in. "You're such a troll, Yuri."

"Problem?" said Yuri while trying to impersonate an old man's voice.

And so, they sit down nearby some bushes and lucky for them, there are blueberries on the bushes. So Yuri plucked them and "feed" them to Neptune...

"What do you mean, "feed" me? I'M NOT A PET!"

...But it still wasn't enough for our little gobbler here. So Yuri goes on walking into some area and starts to collect anything edible that he can find. He then returns with plenty of food, in which 80% of them are gobbled up by Neptune. But at least that's enough for now, right? Well, I hope.

"Say, Yuri."

"Huh? What?"

"You found me lying in the forest, right?"

"Right..."

"And was I beside you?"

"No. You were a few walks away from me."

"And when I was still unconscious..."

"Go on."

"Did something happen to me? Like, anything at all?"

"Nope, except for talking in your sleep, I guess."

{1}"You sure you didn't do anything to me? You weren't having it your way on me, were you?"

"Just... what are you talking about?" said Yuri, looking rather surprised by the subject brought up by Neptune.

"So were you?"

"Just what do you mean?" said Yuri as he blushes.

"Aha! I knew it. You did have it your way on me."

"Ju- Calm down."

"Aaaahhh! So that means I can't marry anyone else now. No! I've lost my virginity." said Neptune as she begins to cry.

"Wha- Who taught you that?"

"I can't believe you, jerk. You... used me for your... pleasure!"

"You know what, that's enough!" Yuri said as he commanded Neptune to stop talking. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, but I didn't do it. Serious! Now who would have their way on some little girl anyway? Man, you're parents must be some kind of jerks themselves, raising a spoiled brat like this"

"But I don't have any parents."

"Then, whoever that raised you."

"Nope, don't remember anyone raising me. I forgot much about my background already, having lost my memories some time ago."

"Whatever." replied Yuri. (I can go insane if I have to hang around with her for a little longer. I mean, where did she learn all those things? This has got to be a nightmare...) he thought while holding his forehead.

"Hello, Earth to Yuri. Can you hear me?" called out Neptune to Yuri, but he didn't reply. "Hmm... I wonder of his ears are switched on?" she said as she leans closer to Yuri and starts pulling and stretching both of Yuri's ears.

"Ow, ow, ow, OW! Hey, stop it. What was that for?" shouted Yuri while he slaps Neptune's hands off of his ears.

"Yep, they're on." said Neptune, putting her hands on her hips.

"Man, I swear if I ever have to stay with you even for just a little while longer I'm gonna go insane..."

**[Loading...]**

"Argh! Does this forest ever ends?" shouted a tired and frustrated Yuri, while outside the forest, birds can be seen flying away in all directions.

"Nepu~. I dunno. But... we're not getting out of here anytime soon. I want my pillow again..." said a tired Neptune.

"Man, if only we have some lead to getting out of this forest..."

"Nepu~. I don't wanna die in the forest. At least, let me die somewhere nicer like at a carnival or something..."

Then they both sighed at unison.

"Man, I still can't believe we've walked all the way until dusk and yet, we have encountered nothing so far."

"It's already been that long? *sigh* If only we had a compass or something..."

"I don't think a compass will help in this situation we're in, Neptune..."

"Aw, crackers!" Then Neptune's stomach lets out a growl. "I'm hungry..." she said while holding her stomach.

"Yeah, me too." Yuri's stomach seems to be growling too. "How about we rest here for a while? I'll go look around for food."

"Sure. Hurry back..." Neptune said weakly.

"Don't go anywhere, okay? I'll be back in a while." said Yuri before he left.

"Sure. I'll just stay here, in this deep, dark forest, where you're exposed to danger everywhere you go. Don't worry, it's only for a little while, right? Hehe..." Neptune said to herself.

Meanwhile, at where Yuri is now... He's collecting anything edible he can find. Berries, apples, mushrooms, etc.. While he is collecting stuff to eat, he heard some slashing sounds. He then hears something fall. "Tch... Not now." He goes to a nearby bush and enters it. He then spies the things on the other side. He sees nothing but a dead boar. (Man, whoever hunted this, he or she must be really strong. And I'd love to get my hands on that boar. It could provide just enough food for me and Neptune.) thought Yuri. He then exits the bush in the direction of where he came from. He is just about to go there when he heard more rustlings nearby.

He readies his sword, places it on his front, looking in all direction to try to spot where the noise come from. Hearing the noise is getting louder, he backs away slowly to find the noise-maker. He backs and backs away until his back bumps into something. He slowly turns around to see... another man who is holding two swords, a green one in his left and a black one in his right. Both, surprised to see each other, jumps away from each other. The man has short, black hair, wears a black-colored jacket with some grey clothing underneath it, black pants and black shoes.

"So, another one of those bandits, I see." said the man in black.

"Who, me? Nah, just some passerby, looking for some food." Turning his attention to the dead boar beside him, he asked, "Hey, were you the one who killed that boar over there?" he said as he points his finger to the dead boar.

"Yeah, I killed it. What about it?"

"About that... Can I have some of it? We haven't eaten anything since this afternoon. And we have been walking for, I don't know, from afternoon until now. How long is that?"

"You've been walking that long!?" said the man in black, surprised. "Wait, what do you mean "we"? I only see you here. Where's your friends?"

"What? Oh damn. I forgot. I left her behind, telling her to not to go anywhere while I'm gone. I really hope she doesn't go anywhere when I'm gone. She's just an energetic girl."

"So you got a girl in your care? And you left her behind to look for some food? Is the place safe?"

"Pretty safe if you ask me. But yeah, since this is a forest, who knows what might creep up on you." Looking as if he had realized something, he facepamled himself. "Oh, man. Why did I leave her there? I mean, she can fight, but can she really defend herself in that state? Why haven't I thought of that before?"

"Uh, sir? You looked troubled. Are you okay?"

"Uh... Look I need to check up on her now. I don't know if she's alright or not now."

Looking concerned for Yuri, the man in black offered his help. "Hey, how about this? I'll go with you. You can go meeting up to your girl while I bring food there? Oh, my name's Kirito by the way."

"So you're gonna help? Thanks. I'm Yuri."

"All right, Yuri. You better get going now. She's waiting."

"Right."

"So which way is it?" asked Kirito as he seems worried that Yuri might not be able to return to where this girl's waiting.

"Don't worry, it's a good thing I've marked the path with cuts on the trees. I'll lead you there, Kirito."

"Sure."

**[Loading...]**

{4}A few minutes has passed until Yuri and Kirito reaches the said destination, where the girl(Neptune) was waiting. But she's not there.

"Oh no. Am I too late?"

"Are you sure she's here?"

"Yes I'm sure." Yuri then saw an object not far from him. Pointing at the object, he continued, "Look, over there. That's her... shoes."

"What? No..." Kirito said in shock.

"Dammit, I knew it was wrong to leave her there all alone." Yuri said, feeling guilty for leaving her behind.

"I'm... sorry for your loss, Yuri." Kirito gives Yuri a pat on his shoulder.

"It's okay. It's not your fault."

*rustlings of branches*

"Uh-oh. Watch out! There might be something nearby." said Kirito as he heard the rustlings. More and more rustlings are heard until...

"Hey, guys! Hey! Over here!" said an unknown voice, coming from an unknown direction.

"Wh-Who's there?" said Kirito.

"Show yourself!" shouted Yuri.

"Hey, Yuri! I'm up here!"

Yuri stops looking for a while as he recognized that voice. "Wait, that voice..."

"Yuri? Something wrong?"

"Hey, up here, you dunderheads! Up on this tree!"

"Neptune!? Is that you?" Yuri shouted to confirm the voice.

"Yes, it's me. Now turn around and help me!"

{3}Both boys turns around to see a pantless girl in white hoodies with short, purple skirt sitting on a tree branch, high above the ground. And both boys cover their eyes from her visible undies.

"Oh, for God's sake, Neptune. Wear some pants or something." shouted Yuri.

"Na-ah! Pants are so not my style." Neptune said while covering her undies. "And stop staring, you perverts!"

"So, that's the girl you've been talking about, Yuri?"

"Yeah, that's her all right." He then turns his attention towards Neptune. "Hey, Neptune? How did you get up there?"

"What do you mean? I climbed, of course." she replied.

"But seriously, that high? How did you manage to climb that high anyway?" Kirito asked Neptune just after he dumped the boar beside her.

"Well, initially I was just hiding from a pack of wolves that came by just now. But fearing they might get to me at my current height just now, which is a few branches below where I am now, I climbed up higher until I reached where I'm sitting now."

"Well, that's reassuring, hearing that from someone who was about to collapse a few minutes ago." said Yuri with a sarcastic tone.

"But now, I can't get down. Can someone help me, please? I'm already friggin' tired, you know. Even more tired when those wolves almost got me. And I'm hungry... Nepu~." said Neptune while a stream of tears come out of her eyes.

{5}(You know, now that I think about it, it might not be a bad idea to leave Neptune behind. She has been a nuisance from minute one. Hehe... I'll just leave her then.) thought Yuri as a wide grin begins to appear in his face. "Well, this is goodbye, Neptune. It's been fun travelling with ya. Oh, and this here will be my new travelling partner."

"Wait. What are you talking about? Yuri?" said Neptune as she sees Yuri starting to leave her behind.

"Well, goodbye, Neptune. I hope we cross paths again sometime soon." said Yuri with a smirk while he starts to walk away with Kirito.

"Hey, Yuri. Don't you think you're being too harsh to her?" whispered Kirito.

"Nah, I've actually been waiting to abandon her. Trust me, you don't know her more than I do." Yuri whispered back.

"But she's been waiting for you."

"See if I care."

"Then if you really wanna abandon her so bad, why come back?"

"..."

"Uh... Yuri?"

"..."

There was a long, awkward silence after that(even the music has stopped), until they heard a branch snapped, and a scream. "NEPUUUUU~~~~~~!"

"*sigh* Why do I even-" Before Yuri even finishes his words, he dashed towards the tree where Neptune was, only to see Neptune falling to the ground. Yuri then jumped forward, dropping his sword, so he has free hands to catch Neptune. But he doesn't seem to be able to make it when suddenly a shadowy figure snatches Neptune away just moments before Yuri is able to grab her. Yuri is shocked to see Neptune disappeared within a flash. He looks around to see where Neptune is being taken to, and who kidnapped her. It was until later Kirito comes out of the bushes behind him, holding Neptune in his arms in a "bridal grab" way.

"Kirito? How did you manage to find Neptune? Have you caught the one who snatched her just now?" asked Yuri. He is relieved to see Neptune is safe.

"The one who snatched her?" asked Kirito.

"Hey, hey. This guy right here, uh-huh, right here, *points her fingers to Kirito*(and if that's not enough, there are a few arrows floating around Kirito, all pointing directly at him, and if THAT's not enough, there's even a sign with an arrow pointing downwards above Kirito saying, "Yeah, that's right. This guy right here. The one I'm pointing at. Yes, this guy!), yeah, right here, this guy is the one who saved me from falling just now FYI." Neptune pouted as she crosses her arms. "This guy is the real hero here. A true knight who protects those in need. Haaaa~~." Neptune said while blushing as she hugs Kirito's arm. Yuri flinches upon hearing the word "Knight". Maybe he didn't like knights? I dunno. Turning her attention back to Yuri, "And to think I would have to depend on you, Yuri!"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? It was only meant to be a joke."

"Well, jokes on you. I would've died if I've fallen down this- Wait, I don't think I would, actually."

"Huh? What's with the change of subject?" asked Yuri and Kirito in unison.

"Well... Hey, you can let go now." said Neptune as she tries to get down from Kirito's "bridal grab".

"Oh, sorry." Kirito blushed as he forgot he was carrying a girl.

"So, uh... What do you mean, you won't die if you fall? That height is just enough to kill a person." said Yuri.

"And that's about three floors high! Maybe four, for God's sake." continued Kirito.

"Well, I don't know if you'll believe this or not. But believe me, it sounds crazy. But, Yuri. You found me lying somewhere, right? Was I in a crater?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah. You were in a crater." said Yuri who begins remembering what he saw when he first met Neptune. "Wait. Don't tell me-"

"Yeah, that's right. I do remember a bit that I was falling from the sky, into the forest a while back. But I thought I was just dreaming. No wonder the pain felt all too real."

"And there are no trees above where she was lying this morning. And you looked pretty energetic back then for someone who has fallen from the sky straight to the ground." said Yuri rather flatly. (Maybe that happened to me too? If so, no wonder my body hurts like hell upon waking up.)

"Amazing." Kirito finally said something after being silent for a while. "Even a girl like you can survive that kind of fall." He sweatdropped.

*growl*

"Sorry, it was me. I haven't eaten anything in a while." said Neptune, embarrassed by her growling stomach.

"That was one loud growl."

"But you got most of the food we collected earlier."

"And that was a few hours ago. Man, I usually need 6 to 8 meals a day."

"8 meals!?" both Kirito and Yuri shouted in surprised. "You've got to be kidding me!" both said simultaneously, their mouths gape wide open.

"I... shouldn't have said that, should I?" said Neptune as she scratches her head.

**[Loading...]**

Ah, a beautiful day in a city. The crowded streets, the crowded marketplaces, everywhere is pretty much crowded. Wow, just how much people currently living in such a small city? Wait, I did say "day", right? So wherever this is, it must be in the opposite side of the forest those three are in. Anyway, our main focus here is not the crowded streets, not the marketplaces, and not the huge castle that stands magnificently in the middle of the city. Well, close. But right now, we're here for this particular person that's roaming about near the castle.

"Hey, can you help me dood?" said a rather squeaky voice. "Hey, anyone here. Can you guys help me dood? I need help, dood." Maybe it's because of his small stature, he was outright ignored. "Hey, I'm talking here, dood!" The voice came from a small purple-colored penguin who has pegs as legs, has miniature bat wings on his back, wears a red scarf around his neck, carries a big bag and has stitches next to his mouth.

"Well, hello there, little guy. Need a help?" said a castle guard as he approaches the penguin.

"Oh, thank goodness." said that uh, person in relief. "Hey, can you help me, dood?"

"Whatever it may be, little man."

"Well, it's like this. Do you know what place is this? I'm kinda lost right now dood. Strange, I don't even remember coming here, dood."

"You... lost? So... where are you from?"

"I'm... I don't remember actually... Why?"

"Huh? What are you lollygagging? Why bother coming here when you don't even remember where you came from, huh?"

"W-W-W-What? I haven't gagged any lolis. (Though that would be fun.) And what's that? Of course I would come here. I mean, you guys can help, right?"

"Well, no. Just what do you think, claiming yourself to have come from a non-existent place that you don't even remember where would make us give you a free home? Well, tell you what. That ain't gonna work." said the guard in an angry tone, starting to get angry.

"But I'm serious! I'm lost! Can you at least get me a place for me to stay?" said the penguin in a serious tone.

"Well, let me think about it... Yea... Nope. No way!"

"Oh, come on!" the penguin said as he stomped his feet to the ground which, surprisingly, creates a few holes here and there. Maybe it's because of his pegged legs that exerts great amount of pressure onto the ground when he stomped, or maybe it's because he's plain heavy... "Hey, cut your physics nonsense, will ya dood? And I'm not fat!" ...Or a combination of both. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"Oi, you!" called out the other guard.

{4}"Who? Me?"

"Yeah, you! What do you think you're doing, huh? Destroying city properties and stuff."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Look down, below you." said the first guard.

"Huh? *looks down* Wah!? How? What happened?" He is surprised to see many drilled holes on the ground where he's standing.

"Don't try to fool us, penguin! You were trying to destroy this city, weren't you?" the second guard blames the penguin.

"But I didn't-"

"Guards! Sieze him!" called out both guards.

And not soon after that, a dozen guards come rushing towards the scene. Upon seeing the holes on the ground, they quickly assumed that the penguin did it. So they charged at him.

"B-But wait. It wasn't me, dood!"

But just as he is about to run away, one of his pegged legs got stuck into one of the holes and he tripped. But what he's not expecting is a few bombs come out of his bag, and caused the guards to scamper around for a bit. A few were hurt, one was killed and a large crater with a few small ones around it were formed. After that, the unhurt ones come charging at the penguin with weapons.

{6}"Get him!" said a guard.

"He's hostile!" said another guard.

"We can't let someone like him wander around the city any longer." said a third guard.

"He'll destroy the city if we let him be." said a fourth one.

"And he just killed one of our members too!" said a fifth one.

All the other guards let out a gasp. Then they turn their attention back to the penguin.

"And he even poisoned our water supply, burned down all of our crops and killed all of our living stocks!" added a sixth one.

*record scratch* "HE DID!?/I DID!?" exclaimed the other guards along with the penguin.

"NO! But what I'm saying is he's dangerous and any of those things might happen any day if we let him free!" said that sixth guard.

"Well, whatever the case, he caused damage to the city and killed one of our members."

"So, let's get him and punish him accordingly!"

And all of the remaining guards(excluding the hurt ones) charge towards the penguin.

"Oh, shit." said the penguin as he freezes in place, shocked at what has just happened just now. Even more shocked to see a half a dozen guards charging right towards him with weapons. The penguin just slowly prays that he won't be killed by the guards.

And from afar, two figures(silhouettes) are seen standing on top of a roof of a building not far from the scene. One big and tall, and one shorter and a bit smaller than the other. They are watching the scene at the castle.

"Man, things just get weirder and weirder by the minute, don't you think?" said a male voice, coming from the bigger figure.

"Yeah, I know." said a female voice, coming from the smaller figure. "But I kinda feel sorry for that penguin though."

"Hey, hey, hey. Just because you like animals and cute things and you find that penguin cute doesn't mean that animals, especially the cute ones, are harmless and innocent." said the male voice. "And besides, that penguin just killed one of the castle guards. WITH BOMBS. Heh, not so cute and innocent-looking now, eh Al-"

But before the male voice could finish his sentence, the male figure covered his mouth with her hand. "Sssshhhhhh..."

"Just what the hell is your problem?" said the male voice, showing anger in his tone.

"You almost left the readers out there a spoiler. We won't debut until next chapter, remember?" said the female voice, scolding the male.

"What? Oh, right... I forgot." said the male voice. "Man, this sucks."

"Well, anyways, now that we've done our part here, let's keep the story going."

"Yeah. I can't wait to appear in the next chapter."

**[Loading...]**

"...And so, that's pretty much what has happened so far." said Neptune as she takes a big bite out of the boar meat she's holding right now. It was already dark at night. The sounds of nature can be heard. The chirping crickets, the screeching bats and such. "Wow, this is sooo good!"

"So, you two didn't know each other, and yet, you travel as a party?" said Kirito as he throws a stick at the fire to keep the fire going. "You must be lucky that you're not paired with some bad guy or something."

"Oi, oi. Why is everyone saying I'm a bad guy here?" Yuri said, looking annoyed, almost dropping his portion of the boar.

"Who ever said about you being a bad guy?"

"Yeah. Sure you may have that sarcastic side on you, but you can be a pretty good guy if you try."

"Just what do you mean with "if I try"?" said Yuri in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, you know... *munch* iv you stoffed beim sujja jerb, ahrm surb peobrel-"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Geez."

"Neptune, please don't talk with your mouth full. Don't you have any manners towards the elders?" said Kirito, in a fatherly tone.

After swallowing her food, she blushed while replied, "Sure thing, hero." while doing the salute thing.

"I'm not that old, Kirito. And so are you." Yuri whispered to Kirito.

"It's just an advice, Yuri. She's just a kid. We need to teach her some manners." Kirito whispered back to Yuri.

"I agree with you though. Although I feel that she would only listen to you and not to me."

"Just try to be nice to her. She will listen."

"Well, good luck trying to convince her with your advice."

"Hey, you two. Done with all your chit-chats?" called out Neptune to both guys.

"Yeah, we're just about done." they said simultaneously. Then they turn around to face Neptune, only to see... "OH MY GOD! NEPTUNE! WHAT HAVE YOU-"

"Wha- I'm so sorry. Can you get another one for yourselves? I was super hungry just now." Neptune said as she uses a bone to pick her teeth. She had just finished the rest of the boar herself. Yuri and Kirito suddenly turn themselves upside-down.

"Neptune... Why you!" Yuri slowly approaches Neptune with fire in his eyes.

"Uh... Yuri...? Hero, a little help here..." said Neptune as she slowly backs away from Yuri.

"Yuri..." said Kirito as he pats Yuri on the shoulder.

"What is it?" asked Yuri.

Kirito just shakes his head as if trying to tell him something. "Remember what we just talked about before."

Yuri remembered it and let out a sigh. "Oh, really now? Fine..." said Yuri in defeat.

"Good." As he walks away, he warned the other two. "Hey, I'm gonna go out hunting. You two stay here and take care of this camp."

"Okay. Be careful out there, hero."

"It's Kirito."

"Whatever. Be careful."

"You too." said Kirito before he leaves the two alone.

While alone, Yuri just lie down near the fire and gazes at the stars above. "Man, it's such a pretty night here."

"Yeah, I know." said Neptune as she goes on lying down beside Yuri to gaze at the stars. "I used to watch the stars all the time with my lil sister when we were kids. *sigh* Good times."

"Neptune? Oh, so you enjoy watching the stars too?" asked Yuri, surprised to see Neptune lying beside him.

"Who wouldn't? It's just that, I missed my home, wherever it is." she said as tears comes out of her eyes.

"Yeah... That's weird. You don't even remember your home."

"Well, do you?"

"Well... Wait, where did I originate?"

"Hah, see? Even you forgot your home."

"That's weird... If we don't have a home, then why am I remembering flashbacks of me during the time I was a knight, serving for this... kingdom and Argh! I can't remember anything..."

"Yeah... I can't even remember about my home too. The only thing I faintly remember is this giant, dark, building thing. I wonder if I lived there though?"

"But, maybe... Just maybe... We're both from different worlds or something?"

"I dunno... But the only thing we remembered are our names and our families, I guess. I mean, I still remember about my sister."

"Yeah, good luck for me. I got no siblings or parents whatsoever." Meanwhile in Yuri's mind, he is thinking whether to let out his anger about the boar just now. But seeing Neptune in such a good and peaceful mood, he couldn't bring himself to do it. "But still, is it just me or do I happen to hate children?"

"So you don't like little kids?"

"I dunno. They're annoying, I guess. And I hate knights too. But I wonder why?"

"Probably still some leftover memories, huh?

Then, Neptune brings herself closer to Yuri. He blushes, seeing Neptune so close to him. Well, just close enough for her right arm to touch his left arm. "Uh... Neptune?"

{7}"Hey, Yuri."

"Yeah, Nep?" (Man, she's still in such a good mood. I can't bring myself to scold her. But to get her to be nice, I have to be nice to her too. So how should I start? Apologize to her, maybe? I mean, I was treating her pretty harshly back then. Maybe I should try that. Man, this is so awkward...) thought Yuri.

"Well, look. I'm sorry for all the stuff I did back then, Yuri. I guess I just didn't know about your problems. You looked like you were having a pretty rough time, though."

"Yeah, you bet I am!" ...was what Yuri was going to say to Neptune, but seeing her so honest to him now, he couldn't. He just couldn't. So instead he said, "Yeah, thanks for your concern." Seeing the situation he is in is rather awkward, he is out of idea of what to say. So, he just says what he has had in his mind. "Well, that's a surprise to see you apologizing." But having realized what he had said just now, he quickly covered his mouth. (How could I say that to her? Dammit, brain.)

"Yeah, it's weird for me to be seen apologizing, huh?" said Neptune, looking rather sad. "Yeah, I know. I'm not the apologizing type, I guess." She looks like she was about to cry when...

"No, Neptune. I'm the one who should apologize. I mean, with the way I'm treating you and such, you can say I was being a bad guy." said Yuri. "I mean, you were just a little kid. And I treated you like something that needs to be disposed the instant it is found." said Yuri, in a guilty tone. "Man, this is awkward. I'm not good at this type of thing..." he said as he scratches his head, having out of ideas of what to say.

"You mean it?"

{8}"Yeah, I guess we could start over, if you want..."

"Really? Wow, thanks buddy!" Neptune then hugs Yuri form the front.

Yuri, on the other hand, shows no effort to break the hug whatsoever. He instead just let her hug him some more.

"Apology accepted, Yuri." She then lays down beside Yuri. "*yawn* Man, I'm sleepy. Well, can you watch over me while I sleep? I don't want to get attacked by anything, you know."

"Sure. Just lay down and close those heavy eyes, Neptune. And I don't want you to get your skin covered in bruises or anything."

"Hehe... You know I'm keeping my skin pretty for my potential husband, right?"

"Either way, I still need to wait for Kirito to come back. So, I'll stay up longer."

"Thanks. I can see that you're actually a good guy. *yawn* Well, good night."

"Sleep tight."

"Don't let the bed bugs bite." And then she dozes off to her dream world.

Yuri sits on a log nearby and watches as Neptune goes to sleep. (Wow. Even after all she's been through, she can still sleep peacefully. She's kinda cute when she sleeps too.) thought Yuri. Then he flashes back at what had happened during his whole journey. He still can't believe he actually have to party up with Neptune. He then smiles at the flashbacks. And that's when Kirito returns.

"So, did I miss anything?" asked Kirito.

"Ssshhh..." whispered Yuri while he puts his index finger on his lips, telling Kirito to lower his voice. "She's sleeping."

"Oh, okay." Kirito whispered back. "And look. I got another boar. But it's a lot smaller than the one before though."

"That's okay. That should be enough for both of us."

And so, after putting Neptune somewhere a distance away from the fire and after putting some leaf-covered branches as a blanket for her, they continue to cook the boar. Still sitting and eating by the fire, they are now discussing about their plans for tomorrow while eating their boar-chop.

{9}"So, uh... What's the plan for tomorrow? Any ideas?" asked Yuri before he takes a bite out of his portion of the boar-chop.

"I don't know. But I think I might have some pretty decent ideas." said Kirito just after he swallows the part of the boar-chop he has bitten. "But, yeah... I don't know if it'll work though. I mean, if we're just sitting ducks here, we won't be getting anywhere."

"Who says we will be sitting ducks? We have to keep moving to get out of this forest." said Yuri in a serious tone.

"Yeah, I know. But it'll be amazing if we manage to survive here for a few days and finally come out of the forest safely."

"Yeah, you tell me. This forest is such a pain."

"But what I'm more worried of is her." Kirito said before he points his finger towards Neptune, who is sleeping peacefully. "I mean, will she really be able to survive in such conditions?"

"Man, I hate to admit, but I believe she got what it takes to survive. The only problem though is her excessive hunger. I mean, she'll get weak within 2 hours or so without food." said Yuri in disappointment.

"Well then, I guess we should collect as much food as possible for our next day of journeying. I don't want anyone in our party to get left behind or killed or anything. Or rather, as long as I am alive, I will not let any of my party members die." said Kirito, his voice suddenly changes into a serious tone. (No, not like what had happened to her. I won't let that happen.) thought Kirito as he clenches his fists so tightly that the big bone in his hand breaks into half.

"Hey Kirito, you all right?" Yuri called out to him.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he replied, "Wha- Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that... Well... (Should I really tell him?)" Kirito was unsure what to answer.

"Heh, don't worry too much about it though. I know, we probably have a lot going on in our minds. But there's this scene between me and Neptune that I seem to can't forget no matter how many times I've tried to forget it."

"Huh? What scene?"

"A rather embarrassing one. But... Seeing as she's sleeping right now, I'll just tell you right away."

"Okay, then."

Suddenly, Neptune's ear twitched. But they didn't notice that.

{1}"Okay, I'm not really sure if I really should tell you this one, but oh well. I'll just tell you just to kill some time."

"Go on."

"Well, I did told you that I met Neptune unconscious somewhere in the forest, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, I don't know where she got it, but suddenly dirty thoughts started coming in her thoughts."

"Dirty thoughts? Like what?"

"Like when I told her that I found her lying on the ground, unconscious, she suddenly said, "Hey, you sure you're not having me your way while I was unconscious?""

"Having her... your way?"

"But that's not all of it. Then she just gets the wrong idea and said things like, "Oh no. What have you done? I've lost my virginity." and "Now that I've lost my virginity, I'll never be able to marry anyone but, but him."(all while making a high-pitched voice, trying to mimic Neptune's) or something like that."

"Really!?" Kirito shouted in surprise. Yuri then just shushed him off. "Where did she actually learn those words? If you tell me, she seems to be like most kids from my place. Even at the age of 14 they already started consuming alcohol drinks and some even take in drugs at such age."

"Wow, that's even worse than Neptune, I guess."

"But really, "having her your way"? What was she thinking? And what kind of thing did she thought you did to her actually?"

"Oh, you know. The thing that makes babies and stuff. Something like that. Why?" said a female voice from behind them.

"UWAH!?" both boys screamed in surprise before turning around to see Neptune standing behind them.

"So, go on. I wanna hear more of it." Neptune said, but in that tone of voice, we can't tell if she's serious or being sarcastic right now.

"So, uh... You didn't hear what we said just now, did you?" said Yuri.

"Every word of it. I thought I told you to keep it to ourselves, Yuri." said Neptune as she bends forwards and places her hands on her hips.

"Sorry..." said Yuri, sweatdropping at the same time. "And weren't you supposed to be sleeping right now?"

"Nope. Somehow I can't get some sleep. But now that I think about that scene, that WAS pretty embarrassing if you ask me. I feel embarrassed and ashamed at the same time thinking about it." said Neptune, blushing at that memory.

"But, seriously. Who taught you those things? I mean, you're too young to know all that." asked Kirito.

Neptune, not wanting to answer that, quickly changes the subject. "Well... Anyways, do we have any plans for tomorrow? I mean, we do NOT want to aimlessly wander in the forest and die, right?"

"Wow. I can't believe I'm saying this, but... For the first time, what you said did have a point there." said Yuri in disbelief.

"So, unless we can find any good leads that might lead us out of here or to any village whatsoever, we'll be stuck here." said Kirito.

"Forever?"

"Forever."

"So, what do we do?"

"I say, we go out the first thing in the morning. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Not until we have breakfast." said Neptune.

"Sure, sure. After breakfast. Shut your stomach up for once, will you?"

"Although I have to agree with Yuri, we must find a good source of food and drink first and gather as much of them as we can before moving out. That way, we won't be unprepared. And that we would have enough food for a day at the very least." said Kirito.

"Well, that is if Neptune decides to leave the food alone." Yuri said as he gives Neptune a glare.

"Fine, fine. Eating is not the only thing I do, you know."

"Alright, then. Now that we have a plan, let's go to sleep."

"But one of us should stay up in turns to keep watch over us."

"Well, then. I'll stay up first. I don't feel that much sleepy anyway."

Yuri and Kirito are now worried about themselves, fearing that Neptune couldn't do the job properly. "Well, good luck with that..." both said nervously.

"What? Don't tell me you don't trust me with this job?"

"What? But of course we trust you." Both Yuri and Kirito just had to lie to not let Neptune worry. "Just... don't forget to wake any of us up if you start to feel sleepy."

"Sure thing, boss."

And then both boys take their own sleeping spots and start to doze off. Neptune, on the other hand, looks up at the clear, blue, starry sky and lets out a sigh. She starts to wonder, when will she actually be able to get out of the forest and/or get home. But she just looks up into the sky and sees a shooting star. She then closes her eyes, put her hands on her chest and whispered, making a wish. "I wish, sooner or later, we will all get out of this forest safely. And let the place where we come out have lots of food waiting for us."

But then, as she started to try to locate her MP3 player in her hoodie pocket, she discovered something in both pockets. "Huh? What's this?" She takes out the item in her left pocket and realizes it is her MP3 player. "Oh boy, my music player. But what's this in my other pocket though?" She is curious to see what's in her right pocket. She slips her hand on and grabs out whatever that's in there. She is surprised to see that the item is a disk. But not an ordinary one though.

"Oh my! This has been here this whole time?" she shouted, but she was careful enough to not let the boys wake up. "If only I had realized this earlier, this could have saved our butts from going through all this mess. But at least we managed to to do it, even without this thing."

Tapping the disk, a menu opened. She then messes with the menu for a while until she gets what she wanted. A Bubble Shield. What does it do? Well, basically you set an area or radius on the thing and it will generate a kind-of force field that shields whoever that is inside that set radius or area. And so, she decides to cover the whole camp with the shield and after that she goes to sleep.

**[Loading...]**

It was morning in the forest. The birds are singing, the morning crickets are chirping, the frogs are croaking... The Bubble Shield that has protected the camp is still doing its job. The three adventurers are sleeping inside the shield.

Yuri, who is used to waking up real early, wakes up. But he finds out he can't get up. One look to his side got him surprised. {5}"What the!?" he shouted as she sees Neptune hugging him tightly. He then tries to pry her hands off of him, which he did but her hands just seem to be stubborn as they planted themselves back onto Yuri. Yuri pushed her hands off of him again and her hands just doesn't seem to know when to give up as they re-plant themselves again onto Yuri. "Man, looks like you just can't sleep without having to hug someone out of their wills, huh?" he said quietly to the sleeping Neptune. He then sees Kirito waking up, so he calls out to him. "Hey, Kirito. A little help here?"

Kirito, who just woke up, barely hears Yuri called him. "Huh, Yuri? What's the problem?" He then sees Neptune hugging Yuri who seems to be struggling to get out of her hugging. "Well, well. Looks like someone is having fun here."

"Kirito, this is not funny. I'm suffocating here you know!"

"Hehe... I'm just joking, Yuri. Now let me help you outta there."

Kirito then proceeds to pull Yuri out of her hugging. He managed to do so, but suddenly Neptune's hands plant themselves onto Kirito. And now it is Kirito who is pinned to the ground with Neptune.

"Oh, now I see why you're having trouble with her. And man, look at how much force she uses in hugging." said Kirito as he struggles to breathe. "I can't... breathe..."

"Alright, just hang in there." He then grabs both of Neptune's hands. "Ready, when I pull these away, you just roll out. Got it?"

"Okay, got you loud and clear."

He then proceeds to pull away Neptune's hands. "Okay. Ready? One... Two... Three!"

Kirito then rolls out. Both boys then back away from Neptune's "deadly" hug. But like I said, she just needs to hug someone while sleeping. So, since Kirito is not in her grasps anymore, somehow automatically and in one quick move, Neptune's disappears and reappears next to the nearest log and hugs it, almost causing the log itself to break apart. Both boys sweatdropped.

(Man, just how bad does she need to hug someone while she sleeps? Maybe she likes to hug people?) thought Yuri.

(Man, just how bad does she need to hug someone while she sleeps? Maybe she likes to hug people?) Thought Kirito.

Wow, it looks like even their minds are syncing in unison now.

But seeing Neptune is sleeping, Kirito suddenly realizes something. "Wait a minute!"

"Huh? Kirito? What is it?"

"Can't you see it, Yuri?"

"See what?"

"There. If she's sleeping right now, then who's been keeping watch over us?"

"What? Oh no. And we even told her to wake any of us up if she's starting to feel slee-" Yuri then notices a weird generator-like object lying in the middle of their camp. "Hey, what's that?"

"Woah. What's this thing doing here?"

"I dunno. But something tells me this is not a good thing."

"But wait, maybe this is the thing that somehow keeps the monsters away?"

"You think so?"

"You bet it is." said Neptune from behind them.

"Whoa!" both boys jumped back, surprised to see Neptune is already awake.

{10}"Seriously, Neptune. Don't surprise us like that again." said Kirito.

"You just know when to catch people off guard, don't you Neptune?"

"Well, sorry. But this is the thing that keeps us safe the entire night."

"Well, what is that thing anyway?"

"It's a Bubble Shield. It repels everything that tries to come inside. The shield, however, is not bubble by the way." Neptune explained the thing to Yuri and Kirito.

"Uh-huh." Both nodded, completely having no idea what Neptune just said, but pretended to understand what she said.

"This shield repels everything that tries to enter the shielded area from outside, except if you apply a Shield-off Spray on yourself. Then, you can enter from outside. Oh, and you can, however, exit the shield from the inside, but like I said, without the Shield-off Spray, you won't be able to enter." Neptune continues explaining.

"So let me get this straight. You were saying that, we need that Shield-Spray-thing to enter the shield from outside?" asked Yuri.

"Yep. Boy, you're catching on fast."

"But doesn't this thing run on batteries or something?" asked Kirito.

"Why, yes of course. This thing runs on batteries. It can go on non-stop for around 24 hours at least. But yeah, it needs recharging now."

"Well, that's too bad. Considering you don't have the spare batteries." said Yuri.

"Have no fear. It's actually a good thing that this thing recharges on its own, but at a slow rate at around 20% per hour. But the other good thing is it can be recharged with solar power. That way, it'll recharge at a faster rate." said Neptune with a happy tone.

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Well then, time to turn off this baby." she said as she presses a few buttons here and there on the machine and in less in a minute, the shield turns off. {3}"So, what's for breakfast?"

"Well, we just woke up, so..."

"There's no breakfast as of now."

"Aw... But I'm hungry..."

"Says the one who finished the whole boar herself yesterday." said Yuri with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, it's not my fault I have such a big tummy."

"Or you just have a black hole as a tummy." Yuri joked.

"Hey, now. Now's not the time to fight. Now's the time for us to be hunting breakfast." said Kirito, feeling a bit left out.

"You know, Mr. Hero is right. We won't get anything just by sitting ducks." said Neptune.

"You do have a point there, Neptune."

"Well then, let's go."

And so, they leave their camp and start to go where as planned. They will be mocing out to try to find a way out of this forest, all while searching for enough food for the trip for the day.

"All right. Now that we have found a rather safe place to rest, this will be our meeting spot." explained Kirito.

"Meeting spot?" asked Neptune.

"Yeah. We're gonna split up and search for food. You stay here and guard this place. Is it okay with you, Neptune?"

"Sure thing. I'll just sit here and wait for you guys to bring me some food. I mean, I have no hunting skills whatsoever." said Neptune, her face begins to show some signs of sadness.

"Okay then." said Yuri. "Well, just guard this place until we return. Then you can switch places with me."

"Wait, you serious?"

"Really? Won't I be a burden to you?"

"Nah. I'm sure you can at least differentiate what animals are safe to eat and not safe to eat. Come on, you can't be that dumb, can you?"

"You're right. I'm such a dummy, even hunting seems impossible to me. Is that what you were trying to say, Yuri?" said Neptune, her head is covered with black shades as she feels hurt at Yuri's comment while a dark aura surrounds her.

"I never said such things, Neptune." said Yuri, trying to reassure Neptune that he means good.

"Okay. I'll wait here then." said Neptune.

**[Loading...]**

"Well, that's all I can find, Kirito." said Yuri after dumping whatever he has collected onto the ground.

"I think that should be enough." said Kirito while sorting out the food they've collected for the past 20 minutes.

"Hmm... But I wonder, what's taking that girl so goddamn long?" said Yuri, showing some impatience.

"I don't know, but I wonder if she's okay though?" said a worried Kirito.

"Well, we better hope she doesn't end up eating all that she has caught before returning here and asks us for our portion of the food. Trust me, she ate 4 times as much as I did before I met you."

"I... see..." said Kirito as he sweatdrops. "But still where could she be?"

*Meanwhile...*

Somewhere in the forest, it seems that a lot of mushrooms grow at this particular part. But something is missing here. Who or what are we supposed to observe here.

"HYAH!"

What was that? I thought I heard some noises.

"Take this!" *slash, thump*

"RRRAAAWWWRRRGGGHHH!"

Okay, seriously what was that? But judging from the sounds I heard, it could be a battle. Oh look, there's a girl fighting a big bear over there.

{11}"You're not gonna get me this time. HHHRRAAAHHHH!" the girl said as she charges towards the bear.

The bear then slash his claws in midair and created an 'X'-shaped wind-slash thingy that moves towards the girl. The attack hits the girl dead center at her chest.

"Ow!" she said as she clutches her chest, trying to get her breathing right. "Hehehe... I'm not gonna lose, you know. Even if your level is twice as much as mine, I'mma still beat you."

The girl then charges towards the bear and got knocked back by the bear's claws.

"Rargh! Don't think, you can beat me, Neptune, the greatest warrior there is." So this is where Neptune is... Anyway, as she sees the bear charging towards her, she places her sword forward, ready to block the bear's attack anytime.

But even before the bear manages to get close to Neptune, another girl, green-haired, green-eyed, pointy-eared, height about the same as Neptune, dressed in white dress, jumps in front of Neptune and gives the bear a kick to the stomach. This caught both Neptune and the bear off guard. The mystery girl then dashes towards the bear, beating up the bear in any way possible such that within only seconds, the bear already drops dead. Neptune then starts to back away from the girl when the girl reached out her hand to Neptune. Neptune, thinking that this girl is probably offering some help, grabs her hand and stands up. Neptune then thanks the girl for saving her.

"Hey, thanks for saving me, girl. You really saved me there. And just when I thought I had it too..." said Neptune, looking upset over her loss.

"Don't worry, you're safe. And that's what is important now." said the girl while she heals Neptune for a while. "Hey, you should get out of this forest while you can. This forest is getting dangerous by the minute."

"Well, sure. But there's just one problem. We even have no idea where we are now. So how do you propose we get out of here? Oh, are you telling me you are an inhabitant of this forest?"

"Well actually, yes. I am the Forest Fairy of this particular part of the forest by the way." said the girl.

"Woah, really?" Neptune had stars in her eyes now. "So, can you, like, tell me how to get out of here then? Like, which direction should I be heading or something like that?"

"Well, from here you need to head southwest. Just a day of walking and there you have it. You're out of here." she said as she points her finger to a direction which we could assume is southwest.

"Really? Oh, thank you. Well, I have a party waiting for me not far in that direction." Neptune said as she points her finger to a direction(which seems to be east from where she's at).

"So in that case, be careful. But do not tell your friends about you meeting me here. But you can tell them that you got some lead to get out of this forest." said the girl before leaping onto a nearby tree branch.

"Hey, where are you going? Your help will be very much needed." Neptune shouted to the girl.

"I told you before, I am a Forest Fairy. I can't let monsters lurking out like this. I have to protect Master Jomon."

"Master Jomon? He's you master, right?"

"Yeah... I guess you can put it that way... Anyways, this is goodbye. I hope we cross paths again someday." said the girl before she leaps and mysteriously vanished into the thin air.

"But wait, I don't even get to know your name yet!" shouted Neptune towards the tree branch where the girl was at before. "Oh well, I better get going. I don't want them to get worried over me."

**[Loading...]**

"Oh, so there you are. I thought you were a goner, Neptune." said Yuri sarcastically.

"Neptune, what happened to you?" Kirito said while he reaches for some first-aid kit in his pocket, looking concerned. "You look... terrible."

"Woah! What in the hell... Neptune!?" said Yuri in surprise. "What happened?"

Neptune arrives while limping, her left leg and left arm hurt, her body covered in cuts and bruises and her mouth bleeding while carrying some food and the bear that the other girl has slain for her. She is still smiling as if nothing happened. "Whassup? I'm not late, am I?"

"Neptune. What has happened to you? You're bleeding all over." said Kirito while reaching for his bandages.

"Yeah, seriously. What happened?" said Yuri, now showing some concern for Neptune.

"Hey, I'm fine. Really. Hmm... About that, it's a long story. Well, not really. But I rather not talk about it."

"Come on, you can just tell us. We're a party, remember?"

"Yeah. Just tell us. No need to be afraid."

Neptune shrugs her shoulders before continuing. "Okay, if you insist."

*later*

"...And that's pretty much what happened."

"So that bear attacked you and you were losing." said Kirito.

"But somehow you won?" said Yuri.

"Yeah, I know. I just couldn't believe it. I've actually wo- Ow ow ow! Careful! It hurts!" Neptune said as she flinches from the bandages that are being applied on her. And she's trying her best not to involve the fairy girl in her conversation as told by the fairy girl herself.

"Sorry, Neptune. But if you let the cuts and bruises be, they will get infected. Then YOU will get infected. I have to bandage it." said Kirito while applying bandages to Neptune. (Well good luck, me. Try to bandage her with my non-existent knowledge of healing of any kind whatsoever.) Kirito scolded himself in his thoughts.

"But, man are you lucky. Miracles don't come often, you know." said Yuri.

"But... Ow ow ouch!"

"Sorry..."

"Anyways, I think I might have a lead to where to go to get out of this forest." said Neptune as she puts her finger to her chin.

"You think? 'Cause all I know, this place stretches forever!" shouted Yuri, scaring a few birds away.

"Yuri, give the girl a chance to talk okay?" Kirito then turns his attention towards Neptune. "So what is it that you were saying?"

"Well, I climbed a tree, a tall one. Then I see something that looks like plains. Oh, you know, something like a clearing with no trees and such."

"Well, you better not be joking."

"I dunno if I was seeing things I shouldn't or something, but I saw it. I think was over at that direction, I think." said Neptune as she pointed to where the fairy girl pointed as southwest.

"Really? Oh come on now." said Yuri.

"Wait, I'll have to confirm it first if the information she brings is true of fake." said Kirito before he disappears into the trees.

"Well, looks like someone is buying your stories, Neptune." said Yuri with a smirk.

"I'm telling the truth. Serious."

"Hehe. We'll see about that."

A few minutes have passed and Kirito still hasn't returned yet. This got Neptune and Yuri worried.

"Well, he sure is taking his time, eh?"

"Do you think Mr. Hero got up so high on the trees he can't get down?"

"What do you think he is? A cat?"

"Sorry..."

It was a few moments later then Kirito returns with some news.

"Well, guys. I think that our little girl here is right." said Kirito, bringing up the news.

"Wha- Really!?" shouted Yuri in surprise.

{12}"Yeah. There really was a way out. We just need to walk in this direction and we'll get out of there, if I have to guess, by nightfall."

"Wow! Now that's some really great news." said Yuri in delight.

"Now we can get out of this damn forest! Yay!" Neptune jumps in joy upon hearing the news.

"But unfortunately we have to cross a river on the way there." said Kirito.

Both Neptune and Yuri freeze in place hearing the news. "Well, we can always find a way to cross the river, right?"

"So what are we waiting for? After breakfast, we take off." She then pumped her fist in the air while letting out a 'Yeah!'.

"My, my. She's pretty energetic today."

**[Loading...]**

"Are you really sure about this, Kirito?" asked Yuri.

"Yes, I'm sure. I've seen it myself too." answered Kirito.

They have been walking for an hour or so after breakfast. Yuri is still not convinced that Kirito and Neptune had actually found a way out. But Yuri decided to tag along anyway, knowing that staying in the forest means suicide.

"Oh, come on Yuri. Don't you wanna get out of this forest? Unless you have a better idea, mister?" teased Neptune.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to see where this leads to."

"But at least we have a lead."

"Sure, but-"

Suddenly they heard rustlings of branches from nearby bushes. There are a few bushes to their left and right, so it can be from any of them. They look around cautiously to see where it will come out.

"Watch out. Stay on your guards."

"Right."

"Got your back."

Kirito draws out his two swords then positions his left-hand swords to his front while his right-hand sword to his right, Yuri draws out his katana and flings it over his left shoulder while Neptune draws out her broadsword and holds it the her front. They look around for more rustlings until Kirito catches a glimpse of the rustlings.

"Take this." Kirito puts one of his swords onto the ground and slashes the ground, creating a shockwave that hits the bush in front of him.

"Huh?" Yuri then saw some rustlings near him. "You won't get away. Azure Edge." He shoots out a green projectile to that bush. Then he saw another rustling beside the bush he just destroyed before. "Here's another!" He shoots out another green projectile towards that said bush.

Neptune, seeing Yuri and Kirito starts smashing the bushes, joins in the fun. "Hey, don't start without me." She then pulls out her gun. "Oh yeah? Take this. Aiyayayayaya!" She shoots all the remaining bushes until one is left.

Kirito then tells Neptune and Yuri to back away for a little bit. He then slowly approaches that last bush and slashes the bush, completely smashing it. But seeing nothing is behind it, he withdraws his swords. "Well, guys. I guess there's nothing to be feared of. I guess that was probably just some squirrels or something."

"Sure. All these just for some squirrels." said Yuri sarcastically.

But then, out of nowhere, a shadow emerged from behind a tree. It jumps so fast around them no one is able to get a visual of that shadowy figure. The shadow then lands a hit on Kirito. Kirito somehow managed to block it. Then it starts circling around them and hit everyone else.

"Hey, if you wanna fight, then go on. You think we scared?" Neptune shouted.

"Hey, Neptune. What do you think you're doing?" Yuri scolded Neptune.

"Calling out the enemy to face us, duh!" pouted Neptune.

The shadow, currently hiding behind a tree, said in a low voice, "So that little brat is not afraid to die, eh? She's too cocky even for a kid like her."

The shadow then starts circling around the three.

"Oh, come on! Not this again!" Neptune then fired a random shot and, miraculously, she hit it. "Woo. Lucky shot!" They watched as the shadow fell into that one bush that they still hadn't cut yet.

Kirito then stands in front of the the other two and calls out to the shadow. "Alright then, come out! Whoever you are!"

The shadow then jumps out of the bush and lands behind them. It is revealed to be a girl with medium-sized breasts in a black clad suit that looks like a swimsuit. She has silver hair, silver eyes, wears black gloves and boots that match her suit. She then pulls out her katana from her sheath at her side.

"Wow. *whistle* Say, girl. What's with that suit? Were you going swimming?" Yuri mocks the girl about her suit.

The girl, feeling hurt, in a swift motion, places the tip of her katana inches away from Yuri's neck. "You want to die fast?"

Yuri is caught way off guard at the girl's speed. He then surrenders. "N-No..."

"Then don't make fun of me!" she said before pushing Yuri away from her, causing him to fall down.

"And that's why you don't make fun of girls, Yuri." Kirito playfully teases Yuri.

"Oh, come on now. Is that supposed to be an insult or an advice?" said Yuri with an annoyed look on his face.

"Say, you're pretty good with your gun, little girl. But I'm sure it was just a lucky shot." the girl said to Neptune.

"Oh, stop it. You're making me blush." Neptune said while she lowers her head that's turning crimson red. "Wait, hold on. I did shot you, didn't I? Does it hurt somewhere?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Not really. While this might not look much, it's actually an armor. So regular pistol bullets can't penetrate them."

"Oh, I see... That's a relief." Then Neptune notices her big breasts. "Aw, I wanna have big boobies like yours." Neptune said out loud. "Can I have them." she said while making her famous puppy eyes and starts to grope them.

"What are you-" the girl said, startled. She then pushes Neptune away.

"So she's interested in that too..."

"Anyway, I heard that you've found a way out of this forest, right?" said the girl, turning her attention to the others.

"Yeah. What about it?" asked Kirito.

"Well, it's just that... I've been lost here since yesterday."

"Oh, oh, what happened? Do you found yourself waking up here in the forest?" asked Neptune.

"So, that happened to you too, huh?" she said, looking down.

"Happened to all of us, actually." said Yuri, after being silent for a while.

"So it did, didn't it?" said the girl. Turning her attention to Kirito, she asked, "So where's the way out?"

Kirito then points out the direction they were heading before. "Over that direction." Seeing that he might have another new member in his party, he then makes an offer to the girl. "But... considering we all here have the same goal, why don't you join us?"

{13}"Join you?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. I mean, the more, the merrier. Come on, it'll be fun." convinced Neptune.

"Oi, oi. Are you serious about this?" whispered Yuri to Kirito.

"Hey, we're gonna get all the help we can find, okay?"

"Sure... I trust you on this one, Kirito." Turning his attention back to the girl, he then asked her for confirmation. "So, do you wanna join?"

"Seeing that you guys are the first group of people I've seen since yesterday... *sigh* What other choices do I have? Alright, I'll join for now."

"For now?"

"Yes. When I get out of this forest, I want to search for my friends. And my Master."

"Your master? So you're a servant or something?" said Yuri bluntly. He then receives a smack to the head from Kirito. "What?"

"Anyway, my name is Strarf. It'll be a pleasure working with you." the girl introduces herself.

"Nice to meetchu, Strafie. I'm Neptune."

"My name is Strarf, not Strafie." said the girl while her face is blushing.

"Strarf, huh? But your suit says "Hina"."

"Hina? Only Master can call me that. For everyone else, it's Strarf."

"Okay, okay. I get it. By the way, the name's Yuri Lowell." he said before he lends out a hand towards Strarf.

"What are you doing?" asked Strarf.

"It's a handshake. Come on, I'm sorry for before."

"Tch..." She proceeds to shake his hands anyway.

"And this guy, our leader, here is Kirito."

"Hi. I'm Kirito. Nice to meet you."

"And with Strafie in-"

"It's STRARF!"

"-now we have made ourselves a party." shouted Neptune happily.

"But we were already a party from the start." said Yuri.

"Nope. We were trios before. We need at least 4 person to make a party. Come on, you didn't know? It's a common sense." replied Neptune.

"Well, she is right at some point though..." Kirito said.

Yuri sighed.

"So when are we gonna get moving?" Strarf asked.

"Actually, we were on our way when you attacked."

"It was YOU who attacked me, remember?"

"Can't argue with that one though."

**[Loading...]**

"Well, here we are. The river that we have to cross." said Kirito after reaching a certain spot, which for this case, a river. Or so it seems.

"Is this really a river?" Yuri said nervously when he looks down to reveal that this so-called "river" is really deep. And he sees an actual river down at the bottom of that, uhh..., crack. "This isn't a river. It's a ravine!"

"Whoops. This must have been the wrong river... Hehe..." Kirito said nervously.

"So how do you propose we cross this ravine?"

"Well, first try to look for a bridge. Then, if a bridge is found or not, we'll figure something out."

"Does that mean we have to split up?" asked Neptune.

"If it comes to that, yes."

{14}"Wait, someone's here." Strarf said, already holding her katana in her hands.

"She's right. We're being spied." said Kirito.

"Really? I don't hear anything." said Neptune.

"All right. Whoever it is there, come out or else." Strarf shouted.

"Or else what?" said a voice coming from one of the trees behind them.

"Or else I'll shoot." she said before pulling out a gun from her gun holster on her left.

"Sweet. You have a gun too?" Neptune said before pulling out her gun and sword. "Hah! Take that, boys! Only girls are cool enough to dual-wield a gun and a sword at the same time." she boasted.

"Nobody cares!" Yuri shouted back sarcastically.

"So you know where I'm hiding, eh? Good tracking skills. Well, no point in hiding anymore. Alright, I'll come out."

And from the shadows, a woman which seems to be in her twenties, emerges.

"*gasp* No way. You're..." Neptune said nervously, looking surprised.

The woman has blue eyes, long purple hair with braids tied at the ends, two crosses that look like Xbox's logo. She wears a black armor suit, shaped like a swimsuit, black gloves, black leggings and black boots that match her suit. And of course, her noticable big breasts.

"Huh? What the!? You!? It can't be..." the woman said, looking surprised while pointing her finger towards Neptune.

"Huh? Do you know her, Neptune?" asked Kirito.

"Yeah. She..."

But while they are talking, Yuri already had a lot going on in his minds. (No way. It can't be. It can't be... HER!? This has got to be a nightmare...) he thought while rubbing his forehead.

* * *

{15}_Just who is this woman that appears in front of the party? Is she a friend? Or is she a foe? Is she someone Neptune knows of? And what will be waiting ahead in their adventures? Find out next time on Tales of the Hyper-crossed Dimensions._

* * *

Neptune : Wow. It's only the first chapter and we already have a cliffhanger.

Myst. Woman : You just had to say it, don't you?

Neptune : Hehe... And you didn't even get an introduction in this chapter.

Myst. Woman : But in the next one, I will. Why? *puts left hand on hip and points right hand to the sky* Because my popularity says so! *sun shining behind her*

Yuri : Hey, hey. Just how long are you two going to end up filling the extra time we had here?

Kirito : Yeah. We barely even got a few lines to speak right now.

Strarf : Not that I care or anything.

Yuri : *looks at watch* Well then, everyone. I think it's time.

Everyone : *waves at us* See you in the next chapter!

Myst. male and female : How could they? They ended it without us... *tears flowing down from their eyes*

* * *

{Next time - Chapter 2 : The Might of Demacia}

* * *

**Well, how was that for a first chapter? Yeah, I know. First chapter and it's already too long. Well, sorry for me to have such a lot of ideas going on in my head at that time. But like I said, this is my second fanfiction. If there are mistakes or grammatical errors anywhere, just tell me about it in a review or something. Thanks for your support.**

* * *

**Feel free to listen to these BGM's if you want.**

**{1} Gamindustri's Comic Relief(Note : Can't find original theme. This is the only video in Youtube with that theme, so search this name on Youtube) - Hyperdimension Neptunia**

**{2} Furnace of War - Tales of Vesperia**

**{3} The Daily Routines of a Selfish Young Man - Tales of Vesperia**

**{4} Keeps Me Alive - Hyperdimension Neptunia**

**{5} Pleasantness - Tales of the Abyss**

**{6} Hurry! - Tales of Eternia**

**{7} Sweet Memories - Tales of Eternia**

**{8} Main Theme - Naruto(skip the first few seconds until the flute part starts playing)**

**{9} ****A Vow of Unity - Tales of Vesperia**

**{10}**** Easygoing - Tales of Eternia**

******{11} The Rising Fighting Spirit - Naruto**

******{12} Farah - Tales of Eternia**

******{13} $100 - Hyperdimension Neptunia mk-2**

******{14} Glued State/Bad Situation - Naruto(pick any one of them, they both fit the scene)**

******{15} Mainstream Theme - Sword Art Online(only play the first choir part)**

* * *

**Characters' Origins(I like to see you try guessing who comes from what) :**

Tales of Vesperia

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Sword Art Online

Disgaea

Fairy Bloom Freesia

Busou Shinki


	2. Chapter 2

**Finally, the second chapter's out. It's been heel producing this chapter. Lots of ideas came and leave just like that. But anywho, the chapter is done. Finally, now I can relax a bit. Enjoy your time reading this chapter.**

* * *

_Ah_..._ A peaceful town. So green, yet so tech-y. The folks here must really keep their surroundings green while at the same time trying to get as much advanced in technology as possible. Anyway, uh... What was I doing again? I don't quite remember... You know what? Let's just start with this scene now that we're already here. *ahem* And now we start the chapter with this particular boy here..._

* * *

**{1}**"*whistle* What a wonderful day today." said the boy. He wears a green top with a dark-blue long-sleeved jacket and long blue trousers. He has red, shaggy hair and brown eyes.(For those who was wondering who this was, this is my OC. And how he looks like? Let's just say it's a mix of York from Cross Edge and Izayoi from Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru sou desu yo?. Yes, there was a '?' in the title.) "Hmm... No sings of rain anywhere." he said while looking up into the sky. "Alright! Let's go hunting!" He then walked out of his house and then was greeted by his neighbor next door.

"Yo, Alex! Going hunting again?" greeted the neighbor.

"You got that right, Uncle Tom. I'm going out hunting. I mean, who wouldn't in this fine weather." Alex said while grabbing his gun to be put into its own respective holster, which was located at his waist.

"Well, yeah I know. Today's a great weather." Tom said before looking into the sky. "Almost everyday is rainy during this season. A sunny day is a blessing especially during this season. So make sure you make the best of it by hunting as much animals as you can, Allyboy."

"Gotcha that, Tom. And stop calling me that. It's embarrassing." Alex said before he went to pick up his swords and places them on its sheaths on his back.

"*sigh* You know, if I were a bit younger, I'd go hunting with you." Tom said.

"Like old times?"

"Yeah... Like old times..."

"Well, I'd better be going. If Tina asks where I am, tell her I'm going hunting." Alex said before running out of the gate.

"Don't worry. You can always leave her under my care, Alex." Raze shouted to Alex who was far away.

"Okay. Thanks again, Uncle Tom." Alex shouted back before he left for the woods.**  
**

"*sigh* That boy... Ah... It feels so good to be young again..."

**[Loading...]**

"...Alright, I'll come out."

A woman in her twenties then came out of the shadows.

"*gasp* No way, you're..." Neptune gasped while looking surprised.

The woman has blue eyes, long purple hair with braids tied at the ends, two crosses that look like Xbox's logo. She wears a black armor suit, shaped like a swimsuit, black gloves, black leggings and black boots that match her suit. And of course, her noticeable big breasts.

"Huh? What the!? You!? It can't be..." the woman said, looking surprised while pointing her finger towards Neptune.

"Huh? Do you know her, Neptune?" asked Kirito.

"Yeah. She..."

But while they are talking, Yuri already had a lot going on in his minds. (No way. That face. That... hair. It can't be. It can't be... HER!? Oh no, this has got to be a nightmare...) he thought while rubbing his forehead.

"You know, I don't actually get it. Are we really supposed to act like this when we met or are we just being over dramatic?" the woman asked Neptune.

"Hmm... I don't know either. I never thought I would get to meet you actually, so I don't really know." Neptune said while sticking out her tongue in embarrassment.

The rest of the party fell head over toes when they heard them talk like that.

"But... just to be safe, let's just act dramatic for a little while longer."

"Then why do you act all, "Oh no, it's my enemy! Run! Run for you-"" Yuri sarcastically mocked with a high-pitched voice before receiving a stone-to-the-head by Neptune. "Ow."

"Well, how are you expected to react when meeting your alternate counterpart in real life, huh smarty pants?" the woman asked sarcastically with a smirk.

"Yeah, like she said." Neptune said while crossing her arms, supporting her point.

"W-W-W-Whoa, wait a second." Strarf told them to stop talking.

"Did you just..."

"...said..."

"ALTERNATE COUNTERPART?!" Yuri, Kirito and Strarf asked shockingly.

**[Loading...]**

{Chapter 2 : The Might of Demacia}

In an underground prison somewhere, we can see two castle knights carrying a person who is thrashing around, trying to get himself free of their grasps, somewhere. And not long after that, a cell was opened and the person was thrown in.

"And this is where you will be staying, mister." the guards said after they thrown the prisoner into the cell.

"But it wasn't me, dood, I swear! I don't even know what happened!" said the person, who turn out to be a penguin, while banging his fists, err... fins, into the cell door. "Please, you gotta understand. I was just try-"

One of the guards then kicked the cell door hard. "Shut up, you liar. You killed one of our soldiers, and intentional or not it's still a crime and you have to be judged for it." the guard that kicked the door spoke up, cutting the penguin off.

"And you heard what His Majesty has said, right?" the other guard said.

"Uh..."

"Right, he told us to throw you in prison and we did as told."

"And now we're waiting further notice from His Majesty himself."

"So sit tight and behave yourself with your cellmate."

And then the guards left the cell.

"Wait, doods! You gotta listen to what I have to say first!" the penguin shouted.

"Tell that to the judge!" the guards said before leaving the prison room.

"No, wait! Let me out, dood! Let me out! LET ME OUT!"

The guards just ignored him and slammed the door.

"Oh man..." the penguin sat down in front of the cell door and covers his face with his fins with disappointment. "How did it end like this? The only thing I did was ask them directions..." he said in a sad tone.

"So, they got you here because of some stupid excuse, huh?" a deep male voice said behind the penguin.

"Wha-?! Wh-Who are you?" the penguin asked.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you, little guy. I'm about in the same boat as you are." the deep voice said in a saddened tone.

"What do you mean, dood? Just... who are you?"

Meanwhile, outside the prison room...

The guards sat down on a bench near the end of the hallway to rest. They removed their helmets and it was revealed that one is a blond-haired man while the other is a maroon-haired man.

"So, Flynn. Just who do you think that penguin is? He doesn't look like from here." asked the maroon-haired man.

"I dunno, Asbel. But I have this feeling that whatever he is, he's a disaster." said the blond-haired man, whose name turned out to be Flynn.

"Really? 'Cause I don't really think so. Maybe he was just confused by his new surroundings." Asbel said.

"Huh?"

"Maybe it's because we're big he thought of us as threats?" Asbel let out a thought.

Flynn thought about it for a while before continuing, "Don't be ridiculous. I mean, he just killed one of our members. So, as innocent as you might say he is, he still have to be punished by the law."

"You do have a point there, but..."

Flynn, having realized something then changed the topic. "Hey, what are we doing here? We should be reporting to the Chief right now."

"What? Oh crap! We do not want to get scolded just because of that." Asbel said in panic.

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Let's go already!" Flynn said just as he started to run away.

"Hey, don't leave me behind. Hey, wait up." Asbel tried to catch up to Flynn who is already a distance ahead of him.

**[Loading...]**

"So you're saying that SHE's your alternate counterpart?" Yuri asked in confusion.

"Well, yes but..." the purple-haired woman said.

"I'm her when I transform. Supposed to be, but..." Neptune claimed.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Wait a second! So you transform into her? Into Purple Heart?" Kirito asked, already confused with the topic brought up by Neptune.

"Then why is she here with us?" Strarf said while trying to be as correct as possible.

"That, I don't know. But now I know why I can't revert to my human form no matter how hard I try." Purple Heart said.

"And it's no wonder why I can't transform into my Goddess form this whole time." Neptune said as if in a realization.

"Because we're both separated." both Neptune and the woman said in unison.

"Oh, so now both forms have their own names?" Yuri asked. "What next? Each form has its own personality and such?"

"But, I wonder... How can this be happening?" Neptune wondered.

"There has to be some explanation to it." Purple Heart too wondered.

"What? You're just ignoring me now?" Yuri shouted, trying to get their attention. "Hello?"

"You know what, that's enough. We've wasted enough time already." Kirito raised his hands on his sides and signaled everyone to shut up. "Alright then, back to where we were before. Anyone got any bright ideas on how to cross this ravine?"

Everyone looked towards the ravine and remembered having tried to cross the ravine before. They then tried to think of a way to cross the ravine.

"Nope. Nothing." Neptune said first.

"Me neither." Purple Heart then gave up.

"Nothing that I could think of." Yuri was the next one.

"No idea." Strarf gave up next.

"So, no one got any ideas?" Kirito asked.

"No." they said in unison. "You?"

"Yeah, I ran out."

**{2}**"But judging by its distant, simply jumping or double-jumping or even triple-jumping won't do it." Neptune said while she assumed in her thinking position.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. Like we didn't know that already." Yuri replied sarcastically.

"So how are we going to get across that?" Purple Heart asked.

"Hmm..." Kirito give the question a thought for a while before giving a suggestion. "Well, how about if we try searching for anything that might help us in crossing that ravine."

"And..." Strarf seem curious. "...what if we can't find any?"

"Hmm... Okay, it's like this. If we can't find anything that might help us within an hour or so, we'll just find a way around it." Kirito stated his plan.

"Sounds good to me." Yuri said in agreement.

"We'll go with your plan." Purple Heart agreed.

And while they were discussing, Neptune walked along the ravine and has already wandered elsewhere all by herself.

"Well then, let's get started." Kirito announced to put his plan in motion. "Mission start!" ...followed by everyone gathered with him to pump their fists in the air, shouting "Yeah!". Well, almost, 'cause Strarf didn't want to but Purple Heart forced her hand up.

And there their search started. They searched for about some good three minutes or something before they heard a voice calling out to them. And then they stopped their search to hear where the voice come from. When they heard the same voice called out to them again, they recognized it as Neptune's voice. When they finally located the source of the voice, they were laid upon a shocking sight.

"Hey, guys! Over here!" Neptune shouted from afar, waving at the others.

"Neptune, you..." Strarf said, trying to process what he was seeing right now.

"How did you..." Yuri asked, eyes wide in shock.

Kirito and Purple Heart just have their lower jaws meet the ground while staring, eyes wide open at Neptune.

"HOW DID YOU GET OVER THERE, NEPTUNE?!" all shouted simultaneously in a surprised tone.

And as you can tell from the dialogue, yeah... Neptune was already at the other side of the ravine. Somehow.

"Hey, guys! Guess what? I crossed the ravine." Neptune shouted happily. "Nepuu~~~!"

**{3}**"Neptune... how..."

"...did you..."

"...cross the..."

"...ravine?"

One by one, the other four members asked Neptune while still in shock and trying to process what was happening now.

"What do you mean? I crossed, that's all." Neptune said, giving the "What?! You don't know how to do it? But it's really easy!" look at them.

"Yes, I know that! But how did you cross?" shouted an irritated Yuri.

"Did you find a bridge somewhere, Neptune?" Kirito asked.

"Error 404. Bridge not found." Neptune replied while trying to mimic a robotic voice.

"Neptune, this isn't the time for jokes, you know." Yuri said while starting to feel rather annoyed by Neptune's behavior.

"Hey, I found it by myself, so you should try to find it yourselves too." Neptune said before letting out her tongue while pulling up one of her eyelids.

And while this happened, Purple Heart face palmed herself at the back. (*sigh* Was I always like this when I was in my Human Form? So embarrassing!) And while she was actually covering the upper part of her face, we can see tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Purple Heart, what happened?" Strarf asked, curious as to why is she crying.

"None of your business." Purple Heart shooed Strarf away.

"Alright, people. Neptune has crossed the ravine..." Kirito said before being cut off by Yuri.

"...and she is not telling us how she cross it." Yuri said in an angry tone. "And when we get there, I'm sure gonna give her a hell of a beating!"

"I can hear you, you know!" Neptune shouted from the other side of the ravine.

"Shut up, will ya!"

"Okay... So if Neptune is over there, then maybe... There could be a bridge or some pathway to get us across. There has to be." Kirito said.

"But we still don't know how did she get there so fast." Strarf said her point.

And while they were discussing, Yuri seemed to have spotted something and began to follow it, just to kill time. Maybe. He seems to have been bored by the topic of finding a bridge and he was trying to let his mind free of Neptune for a while.

"So, maybe if we walk for a while alongside the ravine sides, just maybe..."

"...we could find a bridge."

"Hey guys!" Yuri shouted from afar.

"Huh?" Kirito, Strarf and Purple Heart stopped their discussion, again.

"Yoohoo! Over here, guys!"

And when they turned their heads around, they saw that... Yuri is now standing beside Neptune, both waving at them, signaling them to come there.

"Wha- Aw, not you too, Yuri." Purple Heart said.

"Alright, Yuri. How are you there now?" Strarf asked while giving him a glare. A deadly one.

"Hey, supposedly I used the same path Neptune took to cross the ravine." Yuri said with a smirk.

"And he found it on his own too." Neptune added.

"Okay, can you two just tell us how did you two get across there?" Kirito asked.

"If you're really that desperate, then oh well..." Yuri shrugged before continuing, "Walk alongside the ravine to the right and you'll find it."

The other three stood there in silence for a minute or two before finally speaking up.

"Err... What did you just say?" Purple Heart asked in confusion.

"I said, walk alongside the ravine to the right and you'll find it." Yuri said, this time louder.

The other three, finding it hard to believe that the path could be lying just close to where they are. So they obeyed him, and guess what? There really is a pathway to get to the other side. Although it looks old.

"Um... Are you sure about this, Yuri?" Kirito asked nervously.

"Hey, me and Neptune crossed it no problem, so why can't you? But just as a measure of safety, I suggest you cross it one by one." Yuri said with a smirk.

"Okay..."

Oh yeah, the pathway I'm talking about is actually a tree. A rather old, bent-down tree that has some of its branches that stretches out far enough to the other side. And from the looks of it, it can't support much weight before breaking apart.

"Alright, you heard the man. Let's cross this, uh..., bridge one by one." Strarf said, going in first, assuming she is the lightest. And she made it out just fine, and quickly too.

It was Kirito's turn next. He climbed the tree, carefully made his way to said branches and when he reached the end of it, he carefully jumped across and made it to the other side. So this leaves Purple heart in the back. And so, she carefully made her way up the tree, to the branches when suddenly...

*snap*

"Oh no!" Purple Heart said to herself.

**{4}**The branches snapped when Purple Heart is halfway across. Fortunately, only one of the many branches snapped, so she wouldn't really fall into the ravine, except more started to snap. Each time a branch snaps, another snaps in return. And Purple Heart only hold on the one of the only strong branches to not let herself fall.

"Come on, Purple Heart. You can do it." Kirito shouted, supporting her.

"Come on, don't tell me you're afraid of heights." Yuri said sarcastically.

"Hah! So you ARE fat." Neptune then made a noble-woman laugh afterwards.

"Shut up, other me! Just help me here!" Purple Heart shouted, scared to fall down.

But seeing that the branches take their time to snap one after the other, Strarf told her to try to cross as fast as possible.

"What?"

"Just do it. Don't worry, we'll try to catch you if you fall."

And with that, Purple Heart quickly made her way to the end of the branches. But as she was about to jump, the branches snapped off completely. The branches fell down, bringing Purple Heart along with them. But Strarf made a quick move of grabbing Purple Heart's outstretched arms. She grabbed her, but she couldn't pull her up. Instead, she could feel herself starting to get pulled down along with Purple Heart.

"Strarf!"

Kirito then threw herself on top of Strarf and grabbed Strarf's arms to help her pull, but their weights alone are even enough to pull Purple Heart up to safety. Instead, they are slowly falling off the edge.

Neptune, who didn't want her "Mr. Hero" to go away just like that, dived down, grabbing Kirito's legs to support him. But that is still not enough. So Yuri, after letting out a sigh, pulled Neptune's legs and surprisingly they have enough weight for support and pulled Purple Heart to safety, with a bit difficulty.

When Purple Heart was pulled off to safety, Neptune began mocking her about her weight.

"Ha! I knew it! You ARE fat! And I bet those boobs don't help?" she mocked.

Purple Heart, too shocked to shoot back some insults back, just shooed her off.

"Aw, come on. Don't take it personally..."

"Well, she will 'cause you directed the insults at her." Yuri told Neptune. Purple Heart heard this and shadows covered her forehead, leaving her almost crying.

"Thanks a lot, Yuri. I was trying to console her." Neptune gave Yuri an annoyed look.

"What? I was just stating the obvious." Yuri said without a care whatsoever.

And after a little break, they continued their journey.

**[Loading...]**

"You know, I feel sorry for you, dood. It must be tough going through all that." the penguin said while fiddling with his pocket watch. He showed sympathy to his cellmate.

"Yeah. And all these just because I was trying to get my travelling visa renewed. I swear that one day, when I get out of this cell I'm gonna kill her for sure!" the cellmate said while clenching his fist hard. He is a blonde-haired man who wears a type of travelers' clothes. "And it looks like yours also involved bombs, huh?"

"Yeah, but I don't even know where the bombs are coming from, dood. They just... appear out of nowhere, dood."

"And it got one of them killed, right? So that left you in a bigger charge."

"Oh, come on. You gotta help me dood!"

"You do know that I have a name, right? It's annoying to hear you call me "dude" every time."

"Stop for a second, dood. It's actually "dood", D-O-O-D "dood", not D-U-D-E "dude", dood." the penguin corrected his cellmate.

"You can see the words I speak?" the man asked the penguin.

"You too can see the words I speak?" the penguin shot back another question.

There was an awkward silence before the cellmate finally spoke.

"D-O-O-D "dood", huh?"

"Wow. We totally broke the fourth wall there, dood."

They both laughed for a while before stopping.

"So anyways, I'm Jaster. Jaster Rogue. It's nice to meet you, uh..., "dood"." He then let out his hand to wards the penguin.

"Well, I'm Prinny. The pleasure's all mine, dood." He then shook his cellmate's hand. "And that was a "Nice try" of trying to impersonate me, dood."

"Well, you're better at that."

"So, uh... I wonder what will they do to us? What should we do until then?" Prinny asked.

Jaster fell silent for a while before speaking. Well, WAS about to when he heard their cell door being opened.

"Oh hey, guards. What can I do for you?" Jaster asked the guards, or rather, guard as there was only one of them.

The "guard" appears to be a knight. A blonde-haired knight. He was holding a tray of food.

"Here's your food, you two. You're gonna be staying here for a while until His Majesty gives us any new orders for you. So until then, stay put."

After putting down the tray of food on a table in the cell, he left the cell and locked the door. And while he walked away, he mumbled something under a low voice, barely audible enough to make it out. But Prinny did managed catch these words he thought he heard the knight said.

"*sigh* I can't believe we left the door unlocked. It's a good thing they were too stupid to notice it."

Prinny stood there in front of the cell door, frozen in shock and disbelief. He then facepalmed himself so hard that a slap mark is left on his forehead.

"Uh... What's the matter, Prinny?" Jaster asked.

"They... accidentally left the door unlocked the whole time. And we didn't even attempt to try to open it."

"What?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's just me dood." Prinny said while giving Jaster the "Oops! My bad." look.

Jaster flipped upside-down when he heard that.

"Oh, so it's like that huh?" He sweatdropped.

**[Loading...]**

**{1}**At a house somewhere, a ginger-haired girl walked out of the house. She wears a blue-colored sailor outfit.(For those of you wondering, she's my second OC. How she looks like? Let's just say she's a mix of Nishizumi Miho from Girls und Panzer and Kanonno Earhart from Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2) She then went to the house-divider-wall-thingy and called out to her neighbor.

"Yo, Uncle Tom. How are you doing today?"

Tom was reading a newspaper on his rocking chair when she heard her called him out.

"Oh, Tina. Well, you're up late today." he said before putting down the newspaper and got out of his rocking chair. "Looking for your brother, I presumed?"

"He's out hunting again, huh?" Tina said while assuming her thinking position. "Well, everyone's trying to get as much food as they can before winter comes, huh?"

"Winter? Oh yeah..."

"Winter. It's only a month away from now. I wonder if some animals are already hibernating?" she wondered.

"Well, whatever the case, winter is coming and we need as much food to not let ourselves get frozen to death." Tom said before returning to his chair to read his newspaper. "Oh, it looks like another criminal has been caught."

"Which one?" Tina asked curiously.

"Well, there's this penguin here." Tom showed Tina a picture of a penguin(Prinny) from the newspaper. She let out a look of shock.

"Hey, I know him. I met him yesterday." Tina said.

"Oh, really?" Tom asked curiously.

"Yeah. He was getting captured at that time anyways, so I'm not surprised to see him on the newspaper. But I didn't thought they'd publish it so fast."

"Well, he sure is unlucky." He then returned to his newspaper. "And it looks like the bounty for this thief is getting higher and higher each day."

"How much now?"

"2 000 000 gallars!"

"You serious?!" Tina said in surprise.

"Yeah. I mean, with him going at large and such, and the fact that he has stolen pretty much a lot of this city's treasures, it's no surprise that they should've raised the bounty even higher." Tom said while his eyes turn into cash symbols.

"Uncle Tom! You only care about money, don't you?" Tina scolded Tom.

"Hahaha! I was only joking, you know."

"Hmm... Seriously..."

**[Loading...]**

Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest...

**{5}**"SEIYAH!"

*slash* *cling clang* *flesh cut*

RRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR

"Oh no, you don't! Tornado Slash!" The sword user then executed a spinning slash and goes right through the monster he's currently fighting. And the monster then dropped dead.

"Phew." He then withdrew his swords and gave the monster a last kick to make sure it's dead. "It's dead, alright."

He then picked the monster up and was about to drag it along with the other animals he has killed before, until someone stopped him.

It was a green-haired girl in a white dress. She looked pretty angry too.

"Hey, girl. Are you lost? Where are your parents?" the boy asked.

"Who are you and what were you doing here, slaying animals and stuff?"

"My name is Alex. What are you doing in this forest, girl? It's dangerous." he ordered the girl. "Unless you know how to fight?" he asked rather flatly.

"Look, I don't know who you are but what you are doing right now is slaying the forest's inhabitants. And I will not let you kill any more of them." She clenched her fists.

"Hey, hey, hey. I don't know why are you caring so much about this forest, and why are you getting so worked up on me slaying just a few beasts, but tell me something. Just who are you actually?"

"I'm Freesia. I'm a forest fairy. I protect this forest from monsters and outsiders like you."

"A forest fairy, huh?" Alex showed an expression of disbelief.

"So you should get out of here before I give you the beating of your life." She then let out a green aura around her.

Well, this caught Alex's attention. He didn't know what was happening, but he did know that if a girl's angry at you, you're screwed.

"Hey, hey, calm down. I was just leaving anyways, so, uh... If you would just let me leave..." He then began dragging the monsters he had slain before, that is until Freesia stopped him again. "Oh come on! What now?"

"Leave the monsters here, then you may leave." Freesia squeezed the hand that was holding the monsters so tight he had to let go of the monsters.

"But they're already dead. What are you going to do? Revive them?" Paul asked angrily.

"I may not be able to revive them, but Master Jomon can."

"Master... Jomon?"

"Yes. He's the Lord of the Forest. He has special powers that can bring living things that are dead back to life."

"What? You really think such powers exist? If so, then why not call him here and demonstrate to me?" Paul said in hopes of provoking her.

"He can't."

"And why not?"

"He's old, and he needs rest. Besides, he lives far away from here, in the very middle of this forest. And he can't walk like we do, so..."

"He's crippled?"

"No, he's not. But it's just that, Master Jomon is..."

But before Freesia could continue, her eyes widened for no reason. And then she looked back in a direction with worried eyes.

"Oh no."

"Huh? What is it now?" Paul asked, looking puzzled and at the same time, annoyed by all those stalling here and there.

"Master Jomon..." She then turned her back towards Alex. "I'm sorry, but just take your animals and get out of here." she commanded Paul.

"Okay... First you wanted the animals back, now you let me take them?" he asked in an annoyed manner. "Just which one-"

"I don't have much time, just go and-" Before long, they heard an explosion not far from where they are. "Master Jomon!" Freesia then jumped into the thin air, disappearing from sight.

"Hmm... Something tells me this master of hers is in danger." Paul said to himself before picking up the carcasses and walked home.

**[Meanwhile...]**

**{6}**At a giant tree somewhere... There was fire everywhere and the giant tree which was in the middle was being attacked by a man with a large, bony claw for his right hand. He has purple hair, wears a flaming scarf on his neck and some simple clothing.

"HAHAAAAHAHAHA! Where are you, Descender? Show yourself!" the man shouted. "Hey, I'm attacking your World Tree. What are you, a chicken?"

"I told you, I'm not the World Tree. I am Jomon, the-"

"Shut up, will ya?" He then stopped attacking the tree. "Tell me where your Descender is, or I will completely annihilate you!"

"Hey, you! Stop it right now!"

"Huh?" He then turned around to locate the voice to see Freesia standing a distance away from him. "Who're you, kid?"

"F-Freesia?"

"I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna have to ask you to stay away from Master Jomon!" Freesia said with a serious tone.

"Oho, so this is the Descender, huh?" The man then bent his head to the side until a crack is heard. He did it for both sides. Freesia was disgusted by it. "Finally, I've been waiting for you, Descender."

""Descender"?" What are you talking about?" Freesia asked.

"Don't you dare to try to fool me. I know you're the Descender of this world, so no use in trying to make me change my mind!" the man said.

"Okay, just who are you?" Freesia asked.

"Who am I? I am Goede, the corrupted former Descender." And while he was speaking, he suddenly spoke in a different tone. In a angry, yet saddened tone. "And you, my friend, have taken my place as the Descender and I was dumped because of it. Just because I have a large claw for an arm..." And then, he shouted and fire appeared around him. "And now, I will MAKE YOU PAAAAAAAYYYYY!" No sooner then he said it, he charged directly at Freesia.

Freesia didn't have time to react and she could not ready her battle stance, so she jumped out of his raging charge. She barely dodged it, but she never realized what hit her as Goede suddenly turned around and used him flaming large claw to strike Freesia down, which he did. Freesia was hit by the claw, but managed to throw herself off the ground and finally readied her battle stance.

"*pant* Such power..."

"No, Freesia. He's too powerful, get out of here while you still can." Jomon said to Freesia.

"What?! But how about you, Master Jomon? What's gonna happen to you if I run? And besides, he has destroyed the forest around you, which is your home, and my home too." Freesia protested.

"But you don't understand. He's way too much powerful. You can't beat him."

"But he has hurt you, so I'm not gonna let that pass so easily."

"Come on, come on, Descender! Why aren't you fighting? You're out of gas already?" Goede taunted her. While Freesia usually wasn't that easy to be taunted by, but since she was in a rage today, she felt hurt by the taunt and charged straight towards Goede.

**{7}**She ran towards him at full force and when she got close, Goede attempted to attack her with his claw. But she dodged it by jumping and flames began appearing on her feet. "Have a taste of this! Crescent Kick!" She performed a rising kick to Goede before sending to him a powerful downwards kick to the head.

Goede flinched and grabbed his head to try to ease the pain. But he was still smiling. "Pretty good. But that's not good enough!" He spun around and before Freesia even knew it, they were surrounded by high pillars of fire. So now it's a no-escape battle. Freesia acknowledged this and started to prepare for the worst. "Alright then, it's time to FINISH THIS!" He then ran towards Freesia with his large claw in flames. Freesia to began to embed her fists in flames and ran towards Goede, shouting all the way.

And then they came closer and closer to each other before each of them let out a punch which met and an explosion is seen.

**[Loading...]**

"I'm hungry... When can we get something to eat?" Neptune said while holding her growling stomach.

"You can't be hungry already. We just ate two hours ago." Yuri said with an annoyed look.

"Hey, you're not the only one hungry around here you know." Purple Heart said while trying not to show that she's hungry, but her growling stomach said otherwise.

"Nepu..."

"So, Kirito," Strarf asked Kirito while trying to ignore Yuri. Neptune and Purple Heart. "are you sure this is the right way to exit?"

"I'm not too sure, Strarf. But this is the only lead to the way out that we have right now. So we'll just make do with this for now." Kirito assured.

"I don't know, Kirito. I just felt like, what if we could never find our way out? What if we're lost forever?"

"Please do not say that."

"And I mean, we already have these three oddballs here to keep us company." Strarf said while showing her thumb towards Yuri, Neptune and Purple Heart who are currently eating from a packet of snacks each which they held under their armpits and holding a can of drink with their left hands(right hand for Yuri). Luckily she didn't turn her head around to see them eating. "I secretly just want to get away from them as fast as possible."

"I know how you feel, but right now, we have to stick together. And we even promised to part in our own ways after we find our way out of here."

"Unless if someone still wants to be together..."

"Yeah..."

And then not long after, Kirito picked up a smell. A sweet, delicious smell. "Hey, Strarf. You smell that?"

"Smell what?" Strarf asked curiously, hearing Kirito pulling out an irrelevant topic during this time is not right to her.

"I don't know, but I smell some sweet things right now. Something like, food."

"Food?" And then the smell reached Strarf's nose. "Yeah, now I smell it too."

"If there is scent of food, then a house must be nearby." Kirito said, feeling that they were close to getting out of the forest.

"Hey, you two. Is something the matter?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah. We picked up a scent of what might be food, and we thought we could try to- What the hell!?" Strarf said before stopping a while to see a surprising sight. Well for her anyways.

"What?" Yuri asked sarcastically.

"Is something wrong, Strafie?" Neptune asked with a chicken wing in her mouth.

"You three..." **{3}**Strarf then tapped Kirito's shoulder and told him to look back for a while. And when he looked back with Strarf, what came out of Kirito's mouth were...

"You... Where did you..."

And then he shouted at the other three. "Where the hell did you three get those food? And why didn't you share them with us?"

"Like I said, oddballs."

"Whoops. Busted." Neptune said while shrugging.

"What do you mean, "busted"?" Kirito snapped. "We are hungry, yet you three can just quietly eat some jumbo meal without us." He then turned to Yuri. "Yuri, I thought that you, of all people, would not get involved in one of Neptune's scams."

"Oops, I might have gotten a bit too much into playing along with their "scams" as you might say it." Yuri said sarcastically.

"..." Kirito kept silent as he did not know what to say anymore.

"Problem?" Yuri said while a smile appeared on his face. A smile so wide it reached the ears.

"Of course, you three are not just oddballs, you three are jerks too." Strarf said in disbelief.

**{8}**"Oh, come on. Don't be so down. Look, we even saved you some." Purple Heart assured Strarf and Kirito.

"Uh-huh... You "saved" some for us, huh? Then where is it?" Kirito asked in disbelief.

"Neptune..."

"Yes, ma'am."

Neptune then pulled out her storage disk which she has used in the previous chapter before, and fiddled with it for a bit and then... ka-Blam! Food is everywhere in front of them. Kirito and Strarf were left agape with food suddenly appearing in front of them.

"Okay, so how did you do this?" Strarf asked.

"So, where did you get all these? A magic pocket or something?" Kirito asked while trying to actually tell himself whether this is truth or lie.

"Nope. Neptune's storage disk." Neptune said while holding out the said disk.

"Oh, THAT disk. Ooohhhh..." Kirito said in a realization. "I remember now."

"What? What's with that disk?" Strarf asked Kirito.

"Oh, that? It... has a long story of its own, so we'll save that for later."

**[Later...]**

"Say, Neptune..." Yuri asked Neptune out of the blue, breaking the silence.

"Huh? Something wrong, Yuri?" Neptune asked curiously. To her, it wasn't normal for Yuri to be asking questions to her so suddenly.

"I was just wondering... How is your sister like?" Yuri could feel his cheeks hurting when he asked that question.

Neptune coughed a bit when she heard his question. "Come again, what did you say?"

"I said, how is your sister like?"

**{9}**Upon confirming the question, Neptune looked at Yuri and began to grin from ear to ear.

"What?" Yuri asked, his face began to blush.

"You interested in my sister or something?" Neptune teased playfully.

"No, it's just that, you said you know your sister well. Well, let's see how much you know about her, just to be sure."

"Sure, sure..." Neptune then pointed her finger up, as if she totally knew what she was talking about. "Well, if you insist." She said while shrugging.

"Go on."

"Well, first of all, her name is..."

"Is...?"

"Is..." And while she doesn't look like it, she is actually having trouble remembering her sister's name. "Is..." Her voice began to show uncertainty.

"Hey, come on. What's wrong? Forgot about your "sister" already?"

"Of course I don't. I still remember her, you know." She then assumed her thinking posture. (Dammit. Why can't I remember her? I know I have a sister, but why can't I remember her? I might have to look deeper into my memories, I guess.) *camera starts zooming into her brain*

**[Meanwhile...]**

From within her brain, located there was an office. Inside that office were many tables with high-end computers and printers and photocopiers, pretty much anything you might find in your office. And we can see many chibi-Neptunes working with their own computers before another chibi-Neptune who wore a red cap came running into the "office" and grabbed everybody's attention.

"Alright, people. Listen up. We just got a new order from the boss." The red-capped chibi-Neptune(apparently the chief) spoke.

"A new order?" Everyone asked.

"Yeah. She wants us to find any documents regarding her little sister." the Neptune chief said.

"Anything?" they asked.

"Anything!"

And then everyone started scattering around the room, looking for any documents that might satisfy the boss' order. The opened and closed drawers, searching documents from their computers from A to Z... They are trying their best to find what the boss wants.

"Come on, come on, we don't have much time here. She wants us to find it in under five minutes, you see." the chief chibi-Neptune commanded as she walked in the room. Everyone was rushing about, trying to fulfill their Boss' needs.

"Come on, what are you doing? You can't be slacking off now. What do I pay you for, huh?" she shouted to another cap-less, chibi-Neptune.

"What do you mean, you're paying me? You didn't pay me. The boss pays us." the cap-less chibi-Neptune corrected the chief. "Besides, we're only metaphors for how a brain works, so in short we don't actually exist. So what do we need the money for? We're just here for the gags anyways." the chibi-Neptune said with a cool and calm tone.

"One more talk like that and you're fired!" the chief chibi-Neptune said.

"No, please! I have three kids." the chibi-Neptune begged.

"Well, get back to work, lazyass!" the chief chibi-Neptune commanded.

The chibi-Neptune then rushed off to work.

"Seriously, who hired a smarty-ass here?"

She then saw a chibi-Neptune playing games on her gaming console.

"Hey, who gave you permission to play, huh? I don't remember to ever paying you to play games. So get back to work!"

The chibi-Neptune that was playing just now ran away as fast as possible and was already out of sight.

"Seriously, that girl..."

"Chief! Chief!" She heard someone called out to her. She turned around and saw another chibi-Neptune running towards her with a piece of folder, panting.

"What is it?"

"Here. *pant* I found something that might have connections to Boss' sister." She then sat down to rest.

She looked at the folder labeled "Nepgear" and began looking at the contents. After she finished looking at the contents, she then asked the latter chibi who handed her the folder.

"Are you sure this is the one?"

"I don't know, but her name is pretty close to Boss' name so I thought this could be it."

"Okay..."

"Besides, I remember I heard the Boss mentioning her sister's name some time ago, although I think I only heard "Gear" at that time, but after looking at the name "Nepgear", I'm sure this is the one."

"Okay then. But just to be sure, let's check on my master computer."

They then made their way through the ruckus to the master computer and scanned the folder to get the contents into the computer. And sure enough, a master folder regarding the Boss' sister has already existed, but its contents was empty, so they copied the whole contents of the folder into the computer. And then they saved the files and viola, Neptune's memory about her sister has recovered.

**[Meanwhile...]**

"So, Neptune, have you remembered anything about your sister yet?" Yuri asked.

"Shut up, will ya? I'm trying to remember here." Neptune said.

"Hey, how about this? I'll bet a double-sandwich that you can't find your memories back."

"Yeah, and if I manage to remember my sister, then you owe me a triple-sandwich. Deal?"

"Works for me." Yuri said with a "I'm sure gonna win this!" look. "So?"

"Let's see..." And when she looked into her memories, suddenly an image of a girl pooped up. She has long purple hair, similar color to Neptune's hair. She wears a purple-colored sailor outfit with a short purple skirt. Since she doesn't have much memories about her sister and because the image of the girl looks a bit like Neptune, she assumed that's her sister.

"Well, for starters, her name is Nepgear."

Yuri who is giggling quietly suddenly stopped laughing, hearing that Neptune DID have an answer. "Oh. And..."

"Well, she has the same hair color as mine, but longer. And she has the D-pad accessories on her head, but one instead of two. Wait, why are so interested in my sister anyway?"

"I'm not interested. I just wanted to know if you still have memories of anyone close to you, that's all."

"Uh-huh." Neptune gave Yuri a glare.

"What?"

"Um... If you two can stop talking, that'd be great right now. Remember our plans, you two." Kirito warned the two while hushing them.

"Fine." both replied simultaneously.

And when Kirito has left to the front of the group, Neptune whispered to Yuri, "Well, looks like you owe me a triple-sandwich, Yuri."

Yuri just let out a sigh.

As they walked in this seamlessly never-ending forest, the came to a hold as they encountered a giant statue of... something. The statue looked very moldy and old and, and looked so like its surroundings. While everyone felt suspicious about the statue, they also thought that they might be near some ancient ruins or something. Somewhere where treasures are buried and hidden.

"You know, is it just me or do I feel like we're above some treasure or something?" Neptune said.

"I don't know, Neptune. I feel it too." Yuri agreed with her.

"Me too." Purple Heart said.

"Well, in any case, this place looks safe enough to rest. Why don't we take a break here before continuing?" Kirito said while trying to find a comfortable place to sit down.

"I don't think this place is safe." Strarf said. "This place is still infested with monsters and that statue... It seems suspicious."

Yuri, not wanting to hear Strarf's reasons, just laid down his body onto one of the statue's legs and rest there. "What was that you're saying about this statue being suspicious? Look, I'm lying on its legs, you know." Yuri said mockingly.

At first, it didn't seem to be dangerous, or as suspicious as Strarf have thought. She was about to let her guard down when she felt the ground shake.

"What the?!" **{10}**Well, to be frank, everyone in the party felt the ground shake, but Yuri felt the strongest shake. So strong that he was knocked down from the statue's legs. And then after a while, the shaking stopped. Everyone was panting. They were feeling scared right now.

"W-Was that a-an earthquake?" Neptune asked.

"I... don't know myself. But man..." Yuri said while trying to relax himself.

"So this is what an earthquake feels like..." Purple Heart said.

"Never thought we'd be in one." Kirito then said while calming himself down.

And then they felt the ground began to shake again, but it stopped after a short time. And then they heard some crackling noises and some red lights shone out of nowhere. And that's when they realized it... The statue was moving. It was alive.

The statue started first by moving its arms, then its head, then its legs and finally its whole body. When the statue stepped out of his place, it started to roar really loud.

"Uh-oh, that's not good!"

The statue then combines itself with some of the trees around it and changed itself into a golem.

"That's not good either."

The golem then looked at the five with its red gleaming eyes. It looked at them for a while before raising its hands high in the air and smashed the ground in front of them. They were knocked back by the force of the impact.

"Well, one thing for sure is that it SO wants to attack us." Yuri said after recovering.

"Then let's kick his ass in return." Neptune shouted as she pulled out her sword and readied her battle stance.

"Hmph. It's not like we have any other choices now, do we?" Strarf said before she shone herself in light and came out with winged armor. The armor has wings and two extra arms that holds a sword each.

"Wow. You can do that, Strafie?" Neptune asked while looking in awe.

"So, I guess I'm not the only one who can do that, huh?" Purple Heart said quietly to herself before bathing herself in light ans reappeared in a winged armor, but the wings are floating closely to the armor, detached and there are no extra arms present on her.

"So, you too Purple Heart?" Kirito asked while pulling out his swords.

"Yep." She then turned her attention towards Strarf. "With these, it looks like we're the only ones who can fly, it seems?"

"Hehe... You better put up a good fight with that thing on." Strarf said in encouragement.

"Aww... No fair! I wanna fly too~!" Neptune pouted.

"Yeah, I bet if you can grow yourselves some wings then you can join them." Yuri said sarcastically to Neptune while tapping her head.

"Nepu~~..."

"Uh, guys... I suppose you haven't forgotten why we're drawing out our weapons, right?" Kirito said, catching their attentions.

They halted their conversations and turned to the raging golem in front of them.

"Heh! I knew that."

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's give some beating to this monster here." Neptune shouted while lifting her empty hand in the air before letting out a battle cry.

And just like that, let the battle begin.

**{11}** Everyone charged at the golem, but it was Neptune, as usual, who made the first move.

"Alright, here I go!" She then jumped in front of the golem and her sword disappeared, a hammer replacing its place. "Haiya! Hammer Crash!" She then slammed the hammer at the golem's head which in turn knocked it down. And while she bent her body forward, her skirt lifted up high enough for the boys to see her panties. Of course, the boys have to shield their eyes from it.

"Ugh. Now this is why you should wear pants, Neptune." Yuri said in disgust.

"Seriously, Yuri..." Kirito said in disbelief.

"What are you guys waiting for? He's down." Neptune warned the others.

"I know, I know. Geez." Purple Heart shrugged.

And then all the others charged at the golem. The golem tried to hit any one of them with his attacks, but they all managed to dodge it.

"Hah. Is that all you've got?" Yuri taunted the golem. Like the golem would understand human language anyways. "Well then, take this. Destruction Field!" Yuri slams his sword into the ground in front of the golem, creating a fiery shockwave at where his sword lands. The shockwave hit the golem and knocked it back.

"My turn, Yuri." Purple Heart then came rushing in, attacking the golem with her skills. "Get ready! Dual Arts!" Purple Heart slashed the target twice to the sides, followed by an uppercut, followed by another 2 mid-air kicks before sending the enemy down with a downwards kick.

"Heh, nice combo there, pal." Yuri praised Purple Heart.

"Oh, it's nothing, really." Purple Heart replied while feeling proud of herself.

"Look out." Kirito warned the two from the golem that was about to land a hit on them. "Sonic Leap!" Kirito charged towards the golem and dashed towards it to deal a downward slash, and stunned it at the same time.

"Thanks, Kirito. You saved us there." Yuri thanked Kirito.

"No prob. Just be sure to stay cautious at all times."

Meanwhile, Strarf felt rather puzzled by why is everyone calling out their attacks when attacking. And she didn't want to feel rejected or out of place, so she too tried to think up of a good attack name. And in the meanwhile, the other four were already beating the golem to victory.

"Vertical Arc!"

"Shining Fang!"

"Fifth Shot!"

"Dual Edge!"

Everyone(except Strarf) used their skills and beat down the golem in no time... until Strarf came in and dealt the finishing blow to the golem and got the kill.

"Take this! Chaotic Slash!" Strarf attacked the golem with a skill she came up just now. It consisted of a few slashes followed by an upward slash, followed by a few more slashes in mid-air and finally followed by a downward slash which sent the golem to the ground. When the golem was defeated, its red eyes stopped glowing and its body went stiff.

"We beat it!" Yuri let out a victory cry.

"We won!" Purple Heart shouted in accomplishment.

"Aw, no fair!" Neptune suddenly pouted.

"What is it, Neptune?" Kirito asked.

Neptune then pointed her index finger towards Strarf. "No fair, Strarf. You were totally AFK'ing the whole time, yet you simply just jumped in at the last second and KS'ed us all the way to get your first kill. No fair!"

"If you have time to complain, then I suggest you find another one on your own and beat it alone." Strarf replied with a slight annoyance in her tone.

"Well, maybe next time, little me." Purple Heart teased Neptune.

"And big me." Neptune added. Neptune then continued pouting.

But meanwhile, from a distance away from the group, a black-haired girl in a white outfit and white pants(that happens to look like an underwear) with a red scarf around her neck just stood there, watching the group relax as the battle ended. She then assumed her archery position and in her left hand, a winged bow appeared. Then with her right hand, she pulled out a light-imbued arrow which magically appeared from her non-existing arrow holder. Then when she was ready, she aimed the arrow at the dead golem and fired it.

While the group of five were resting from the fight, Neptune saw some light shine from behind her and shielded her eyes from it. When she turned around to see what it was, she couldn't really see what it was, but judging from the intensity, she knew that it was coming closer. AT HIGH SPEED!

Noticing the shining object, she quickly rolled out of the way.

"Hey, Neptune. What are you rolling away from? A bug?" Yuri playfully teased Neptune.

But no sooner than he said that, an explosion was felt from the direction of where the dead golem was, and the explosion let out a blinding light. After the light has receded, they looked at where the light was. And they saw nothing but the golem that's been dead for a while. Or is it? Suddenly, the golem woke up(as indicated by its re-glowing eyes) and stood up. But this time, there was something different about it as it bathed itself in light. The group were forced to shield their eyes to not let themselves be blinded by the light. And when the light died down, what stood in front of them was something different. Something shocking.

What stood in front of them now is instead of a golem, it is a red-colored robot with trees as arms and rocks as legs. It also has tendrils on its back(which was part of the golem's legs before). Its head was still the same head of the golem's, but with spikes around it. Its right arm has a large hole where the hand was supposed to be while its left arm does have an arm.

"Heh! A bug you say, Yuri?" Neptune shot back a sarcastic reply.

"Hahaha..."

"So it's a robot now?" Purple Heart said while she drew out her sword again.

"I don't understand how things like this work. First, we beat it and it dropped dead, and suddenly it revived itself, and got stronger than before. How does that even work?" Kirito asked.

"I don't know, but this thing is pretty common in video games." Neptune replied.

"Heh! I don't care how this thing gets back to life, but what I do care is beating this thing down again like we did just now." Yuri said before starting to charge towards the robot golem. He lowered his sword to his left and readied himself for an attack.

"Bring it!" As the robot attacked, Yuri dodged its attacks and attacked it in return. "Take this! Tiger Blade!" He performed an upward slash, he rose as high as the robot's head and followed his attack by a slash in mid-air before slamming his fist onto the robot's chin. "I'm not done yet. Severing Fang!" He kneed the robot's chin and with his hand's support on the chin he rose back up and the attack was followed by two downward slashes in mid-air. The robot flinched(can be indicated by its closing eyes).

"How was that? Not so tough now, are you?" Yuri said in full pride.

Yuri was still at the robot's head'd height during this time. Before he even knew it, the robot fired some flames from its mouth and hit Yuri with it.(So I guess its "flinching" is actually it charging its fire attack) And just like any comical scenes, Yuri stopped moving in mid-air and fell straight to the ground. He was burned to a crisp.

"Yuri!" Neptune shouted, trying to catch Yuri but failed.

"Well, should've seen that one coming." Yuri said upon landing on the ground.

The robot golem then pounded an already-burned Yuri into a pulp with its hand.

"Or that."

The robot seemed to have fun beating the crap out of Yuri as it then pounded him a few more times before kicking Yuri so hard he flew straight halfway into another tree nearby. His head and top-half of his body was stuck in the tree while his lower-half of his body was left hanging.

"Didn't see that one coming though." he said before passing out.

"Yuri!" Neptune shouted worriedly. She then turned to the robot golem. "Damn you, golem. You'll pay for what you've done to Yuri!" Neptune started to charge at the golem, but was stopped by Kirito.

"Why do you stop me, Hero?"

"Neptune, you saw what he did to Yuri, don't you?" Kirito scolded Neptune.

"Yeah, and that's why I was trying to attack him for it." Neptune stubbornly replied.

"If that's what he can do to Yuri, then he's dangerous. It's not something to be taken lightly."

"But, but..."

"He's right, you know." Strarf said. "We won't be able to beat him like this."

"And now we just lost a man, so that makes it worse." Purple Heart said.

"Damn. We need to get out of here, fast." Kirito shouted. He was looking for a way out, but just when he found it, the robot golem blocked it with using its disposable tendrils. "Great. There's no way out."

"Looks like we just need to beat it somehow."

"Well, I couldn't care less. So I'm just gonna beat the crap out of him." Purple Heart then entered her battle stance. "Let's go, Strarf!"

Strarf nodded and both of them attacked the robot head-on.

"Oi, wait up!" Kirito caught up with them and attacked along with them. Neptune stayed behind to take care of Yuri.

But no matter how much they attacked, the robot golem just didn't seem to weaken at all. Instead it seemed like it was getting stronger the more they damage it. They've attacked the robot with the best they got, but the robot was too stubborn to die.

"Tch... Will this thing ever dies?" Purple Heart shouted after being knocked back.

"Why does it keep getting stronger each time we attack it?" Kirito asked. "Don't tell me... It absorbed our attacks?"

"Like things like that even exist." Purple Heart said with a smirk.

"But at this rate, we won't win." Strarf said as she dropped her weapon.

"Strarf?"

"Don't tell me you've given up already."

"I'm sorry. I can't go on anymore. You two go on without me." Strarf then sat down, panting heavily.

"Strarf... Augh-!"

"Kirito!"

Kirito was attacked by the robot without knowing while they were talking. Now Purple Heart was all alone. She was about to lose hope until...

"Ex-Caliber Blade!"(Still waiting for the official English release, and this is the best name I could make up from it's Japanese name yet, so...yeah...)

A giant energy sword fell down from the sky on the robot and electrocuted it for a while while causing an explosion.

"Wait, that's..."

"Sorry for the wait, but I have someone in my care you know." **{12}**Neptune then walked out and then drew out her sword to attack. She followed up with a lot of combos on the robot.

"Dual Edge! Hammer Spin! Dual Arts! Jumping Arts!" She then backed off a little bit and drew out her gun to shoot at the robot. "Eiya!" She fired off a shot. "Third Shot!" She spun around and fired three more shots at the robot's head. "Take this! Fifth Shot!" She then fired off five shots in such a way that it formed an 'X'-shaped arc in the air before the arc itself flew at high speed through the robot.

"Neptune, you..."

"Now, Yuri!"

"Huh?"

"Alright, then." Yuri, with his sword already out, then focused his energy on his sword until it turned green. "Final..." He then slashed his sword in mid-air, forming an arc. "...Gale!" He then slashed again at the same spot, making an 'X'-shaped arc before it flew at high speed through the robot.

"Yuri, you've recovered." Purple Heart in shock. She never expected Yuri to heal so fast despite all the damage he took just now.

"Yeah. Apparently your little self here knows some healing tricks. I give you that, whatever she did just now was incredible." Yuri said with a smile. "Now, let's fight together."

"Yeah, Yuri and Double-Neps, together!" Neptune hugged Purple Heart's right arm. "Right?"

Purple Heart chuckled quietly at their words. "Alright, let's do this."

**[Loading...]**

Meanwhile in the same town as the one in the beginning, we can see two persons walking down an alleyway. One is short while the other is tall.

"So, uh... Are you really sure you want to take up this job?" the shorter one asked the taller one who was holding some papers in his/her hands.

"Well, IF, I wouldn't really say I wanted to, but it's my job as a defense attorney to defend the innocents." the taller one(who is a man) said to the shorter one named IF. The man has black spiky hair-do, wears blue pants and a blue jacket. Underneath the jacket are a regular white shirt and a red tie. "And besides, I've caught a glimpse of the criminal. I didn't see his face, but I've seen his body shape and hairstyle, so that might help in finding the criminal."

"So tell me something, Wright. Why I was hired again?" IF said while playing with her cellphone. The shorter person(who is a girl) named IF has brown hair with a leaf-shaped ribbon in her hair, she wears a black clad outfit underneath an unusually large blue jacket. A jacket a few sizes too big for her.

"Well, that's because I need some bodyguards to protect me during my search for evidence." Wright said while looking through the papers he's holding. "And besides, I heard you were good with cases as well."

"Tch! Well, at least I have SOMETHING to do today. AND the day where I have SOMETHING to do also HAPPENS to be the DAY where I got a LOT of REQUEST from guilds galore!" IF snapped.

"Okay, okay. I can always un-hire you and un-pay you anytime, so..."

"But now that I was hired, I might as well just see it to the end, don't you think?" IF asked Wright while still playing with her cellphone.

"I think?" Wright said un-confidently. "Oh yeah," Wright said as if he had remembered something. "if you mind me asking..."

"Yeah?"

"Why are you always on your phone? What's so interesting about your phone?"

"It's none of your business."

"*gasp* Don't tell me..."

"What?" IF looked puzzled by Wright's questions.

"...don't tell me that you've become addicted to your phone?"

IF fell upside-down upon hearing Wright's question, her legs twitching.

"Now why do you think that's the case, huh?" IF shouted while trying to hide her reddened face.

"What? That makes sense, right?" Wright said while rubbing his head.

"You really are a stupid ass, aren't you?" IF cursed quietly before getting back to her cellphone.

"Oh hey there, little girl. What are you doing here all alone?" Wright asked whoever the question was directed to.

"Huh?" **{13}**IF snapped back into reality and began to look away from her phone to see a blue-haired girl standing in front of them. She wears a regular red-colored school uniform.

"Hey, that outfit... That's a school uniform, right?" IF asked the girl.

"That's correct. I was heading home." she answered. "And I heard you were working on some case, am I correct?"

"Yeah... What of it?" Wright said flatly.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought I find it interesting, that's all." the girl said with her cat smile on.

"Come on, Wright. Let's just go." IF said while pulling Wright's arm.

"W-W-Wait, hold up."

"Hold on, Wright you said?!" the girl said while looking shocked. "As in, "Phoenix Wright"?"

"Yeah, you've heard of me?" Wright asked the girl.

"Have I heard of you? I'm a big fan of you. You solved so many cases already. Although there's this other detective that I'm a fan of, you were more favorited then him." the girl said before she held out a book. "May I have your autograph?"

"Uh... sure." He handed the papers to IF for her to hold and then drew out his pen and took the girl's book. When he opened the book, he saw that it was filled with many autographs already. "You sure are a fan to these people, huh?"

"Yep."

"Uh, okay... So, where do I sign?" Wright asked.

"Anywhere that fits." the girl answered.

"Okay then."

In the meanwhile, IF was looking pissed for not being as famous as Wright is. (Tch! Show off!)

"What's your name, kid?"

"Konata. Konata Izumi." the girl introduced herself.

"Alright then. Konata... Izumi... Here. My autograph along with my name and your name." Wright said as he handed the book to Konata.

"Waahhh! I've got your autograph..." Konata said while hugging the book. "And with my name written by him too. Well then, I'll be going now. See you later." Konata said as she ran away happily.

"That girl... So weird..." IF said with a slight annoyance in her tone.

"Well, at least I now know that I have some fans." Wright said, feeling proud.

"Come on, let's just go already." IF said while pulling his shirt sleeves, dragging him along with her.

"Alright, alright. Fine..."

**[Loading...]**

"UAGHK?!" Yuri was thrown straight into a tree. "Dammit, no good."

"Yuri!"

"Neptune, look out!" Yuri warned.

"Huh? AAAHH!" Neptune was knocked down.

"AAAHHH! DAMN!" Purple Heart too was losing the battle. And so were Kirito and Strarf. They lost to the robot golem that was a reincarnation of the golem they have previously defeated. Meanwhile, the black-haired girl watched from afar and chuckled at the sight of the group losing.

The robot golem charged its next attack. A glow can be seen from its chest. And when the robot was about to launch its attack at the five, they thought it was all over when...

"DEMACIA!"

...they heard a battle cry nearby. **{14}**And out of nowhere came a man running in with a large sword. He dashed towards the robot and jumped. He then slammed his sword hard at the robot's body which went through from its body to its legs. The robot fell down because of the impact.

The man has braided brown hair. He wears black pants, a black shirt underneath a large gold-and-blue armor with golden armguards at each arms. He even wears a giant belt which he slung over his right shoulder as that belt is part of his sword's sheath. Everyone there was stunned by the turn of events.

"Wow, did he just..."

"...beat that... thing..."

"...by... himself?"

"Amazing..."

The mysterious man then stood up, looking towards the group of five whom were lying on the ground, panting.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked while picking up his sword.

"Oh, I'm alright, all right. WITH A BROKEN LEG, THAT IS! Of course I'm not alright, I got a broken leg, you know!" Yuri answered the man's question sarcastically.

"You know, if you would stop being so sarcastic, that'd be great you know." Neptune said.

Yuri just let out a sigh at Neptune's words.

"Don't let your guards down yet. That thing's still not dead." he warned.

"What?!" Everyone shouted.

"Don't worry. I'll beat this thing down." he assured the rest.

"But you sure you can beat it by yourself?" Strarf asked in concern.

"And that's where you guys come in. You guys support me so that I can lead the charge." he said as he entered his battle stance. Or rather, just standing there with his sword pointing down.

And not long after, they felt the ground shake and saw the robot standing up yet again.

"Alright, on my cue, we go. Got it?" the big man commanded.

"Got it!" everyone except Yuri answered.

"But not me. I got a broken leg."

"No matter. This amount will be enough." The big man then held his hand to the side, telling the others not to move until he gives his signal. He then said with an unsure tone. "To be honest with you guys though, I've never come across something like this before. So I'm not really sure if we could do this actually."

"So why now tell us?" Yuri asked.

"I don't know." he replied.

The robot was already making its way to them. And when the robot held its hands to the sides to charge its laser attack, leaving its chest exposed, he called out. "NOW!" And they began swarming on the robot.

Kirito slashed the robot's chest where it's glowing with the laser attack being charged a few times and cancelled the attack.

"Alright! Now cover me!" the big man commanded while he came rushing in to kill the robot. But he didn't see the robot's hand trying to crush him. But luckily for him, Purple Heart and Strarf shot down its arm. That just leaves its cannon arm.

"Guys, its cannon is about to fire." Kirito warned the others.

But seeing that the arm was already glowing, they tried to rush in to destroy that arm.

"Oh no! We're not gonna make it!" Purple Heart said.

"Yes, we will!" Strarf assured her.

But then, before they even got to the arm, the felt something moved past them at high speed. And before they knew it, the cannon's charge was cancelled.

"Hey, you guys." Yuri called out from behind. They all then turned to look at Yuri. "Hey, I just Final Gale'd it, so why don't you finish that arm? Or Neptune will do it for you."

"Huh?" Everyone was puzzled by Yuri's sudden rambling.

"Burst Shot!" Neptune fired a large energy shot into the arm-cannon and exploded it to bits. Now the big man can finish the robot for good.

"Alright, here I go! Decisive Strike!" He jumped into the air and slammed his sword into the robot. "Judgment!" He then spun around the robot for a few seconds and immobilized the robot. "This is it!" He backed away and then began holding his sword in front of him and chanted something under his breath. The robot began to move and was closing in on him when... "This ends now! Demacian Justice!" He stabbed the ground in front of him and then moments later, a giant blade of light fell on top of the robot, annihilating it altogether. Everyone was shocked at his power just now. He was able to take down the robot while the five of them can't.

After executing the attack, the big man then sheathed his sword. "Wow, that was tough."

"Yay! You did it, Mr. Awesome Guy!" Neptune congratulated him with some thumbs up. "Way to go!"

"That was amazing!"

"Incredible!"

And then everyone(except the big man) fell on their bottoms, tired.

"Thanks!" He then turned to the ladies in the group. "*ahem* You ladies don't suffer that much damage, do you? Well then, let me help you up." the man said as he went for Purple Heart, Neptune and Strarf and helped them to get back on their feet...while completely ignoring Yuri and Kirito.

"Oh, sure. Ladies first." Yuri complained. "While we're here taking the most damage!"

The mysterious man then helped Yuri and Kirito to get back on their feet. He then distributed a bottle containing red-colored liquid to everyone.

"A potion?" Kirito questioned about the bottle.

"Drink it up. We need to be prepared for the worst." the man said.

"Prepared for the worst? What do you mean?" Strarf asked the man.

"Well, we might not know whatever that might come ambushing us." the man answered.

"Oh, by the way, the name's Garen." the mysterious man introduced himself.

"Garen, huh? I'm Kirito. It's a pleasure working with you, Garen." Kirito then shook hands with Garen.

Garen then looked at everyone else around him.

"Strarf." she said casually

"Purple Heart." she introduced herself with pride.

"Neptune's the name." Neptune introduced herself to Garen while doing the "peace" fingers.

"Geez, Kirito boy. I must say you are one lucky man." Garen said to Kirito.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

"Well, for you to be surrounded with these beautiful maidens, you sure are a chick magnet." Garen said rather flatly. Purple Heart, Neptune and Strarf just blushed at Garen's comment about them.

He then turned his attention to Yuri. "So what's your name, pretty lady?" Garen asked as he gets closer to Yuri.

"W-W-Wha-?!" Yuri, who was drinking the potion, coughed out some of it. "L-Lady?!" Yuri shouted.

**{15}**"Him, a lady?" Kirito said in shock while letting out a small chuckle afterwards. Purple Heart can be heard laughing in the background.

"What? What's wrong?" Garen asked in confusion.

Meanwhile, in the back...

"Hey, Strarf." Purple Heart called out.

"What?" she answered.

"You might want to relax and watch this." Purple Heart said as she handed Strarf a bucket of popcorn. "Here, have a seat." She told Strarf to sit on the tree roots beside her.

"Um, sure."

"Yuri, a lady?!" Neptune then laughed herself out. She even rolled on the ground, laughing until her stomach started to hurt. "OMG LOL ROFLCOPTER! I can't take it anymore. Hahaha... Ow, my stomach... Hahahaha..." She even laughed until tears started flowing out of her eyes.

"What is it? Why are you laughing so hard? What's so funny?" Garen was starting to become more confused by the minute.

Yuri, who can't take anymore mockery from Neptune, then blasted Neptune away with one of his strong moves. "Lone Wolf Charge!" He slammed the ground in front of Neptune with his right fist and an aura of a wolf's head came out and blasted Neptune away.

"OMG WTF?! You don't have to hit me for reals, Nepuu~~!" she said as she flew away.

"Geez, that Neptune. Does she really have to make my life any more worse?" Yuri then face palmed himself.

"Alright, can you tell me why was she laughing so hard just now?" Garen demanded for an answer.

"Well, Garen. Yuri, that long-haired boy whom you called a girl, is a boy." Strarf answered Garen's question.

"He's... WHAT?"

"That's right. You tried to flirt with a boy." Kirito then said to Garen.

"Okay, do I look like a girl to you?" Yuri asked angrily as he crossed his arms.

"Yep. Your long hair and your body shape makes you look like a girl." Although Yuri was expecting some answers, this answer was actually from Neptune, not from Garen.

"Neptune, when are you here?"

"Geez, Yuri. The first time I saw you, I thought you were a girl myself too. Hahaha... LOL." She then stuck out her tongue as if she was embarrassed in saying what she said before. "At least, until I heard your voice."

"Just get out of my life, will you!" Yuri then charged some energy at his right palm. "Raging Blast!" His palm glowed red and then he pushed the palm towards Neptune's body. He then charged his energy further and caused the energy in his palm to explode, thus blasting Neptune away. Again.

"OMG WTF?! Not again. I was only joking, Nepuu~~!" she said as she flew. Again.

After calming himself down, he then turned to Garen. "So, like I said. Do I really look like a girl to you?"

"Well, you long hair makes you look like one." Garen answered nervously. He then pulled his hands forward in a defensive position when he saw Yuri moved.

"*sigh* Do I really have to cut off my hair? But I like to keep it this way." Yuri said as he brushed his hair in the wind.

And before they even knew it, Garen was already banging his head continuously at a nearby tree.

"I can't believe I was flirting with a boy." And then tears started to flow out of his eyes. "My pride as a knight has shattered..."

"There, there. Don't take it too seriously though. I was only angry at Neptune, not at you."

"Is it just me or is banging your head to a random tree continuously gonna be a running gag in the series?" Neptune said.

"I thought I told you to stay away!" He then placed his right fist just below his waist and charged some energy into his fist. "Fang Strike!" He then performed an uppercut which blew Neptune high up into the sky.

"Oh, come on! What the hell did I do this time, Nepuu~~?" She flew straight up into the sky until she disappeared in a mere "ping".

"You should really stop harassing Neptune, you know." Kirito advised Yuri. "She's still just a kid."

"As annoying as she might be, she can be useful sometimes..." Strarf pointed out. "...which is true."

"Yeah. And you know you shouldn't be wasting your energy on your allies out of anger when you can use it on your foes." Purple Heart said while crossing her arms.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Geez."

And after a while, Neptune finally fell down back to earth. She was covered in dirt when the dust cleared.

"I'm not a freaking punching bag, you know!" ...were the first words that came out of Neptune's mouth upon landing.

"Well, like you said how I should stop being sarcastic and all that, if you could stop being so freakishly annoying and all that, yeah, that'd be great, Neptune." Yuri said while giving her the 'It's your fault, not mine!' look. Neptune just sulked.

"Something tells me that those two have the closest relationships compared to the others." Garen mumbled to himself while a large drop of sweat traveled down the back of his head.

"Well then," Kirito said out loud to get everyone's attention, "now that we're safe here, we should take a break here."

"And a long one too." Yuri added.

"Yeah. We'll be continuing our journey in three hours, so get enough rest guys." Kirito advised before commanding Garen to help him clear the place out.

And meanwhile, the same black-haired girl from before was watching the group of now six people clearing the place up and rest themselves out.

"You may be lucky this time. But next time it won't be the same." she cursed under her breath before leaving where she was just now.

**[Loading...]**

"Phew, finally I reached home." Alex said while he swept off the sweat gathering at his forehead. "Man, these things must've weighed a ton."

"Hey, brother!" a girl's voice called out to him.

"Huh?" He turned his head around to see a ginger-haired girl waving at him from his house's gate. "Oh, hey Tina." He then waved back at her.

"Well, took you long enough. Well, longer than usual anyway. Did something happened?" Tina asked as she greeted him.

"Oh, nothing. Just some luck of mine not allowing me to find more animals to hunt." he answered sarcastically.

"Well, it is to be expected anyway, since winter is close right about now." Tina said while helping her brother moving the animals he just hunted.

After they have placed the animals in their, uh... hunting collections place, Alex and Tina went to the living room. Having tired himself from the hunting and dragging the animals home, Alex instantly collapsed on the sofa...

"Alex? Alex, brother, are you all right?" Tina called out while vigorously shaking his body, worried over his brother.

...and dozed off on the sofa that instant.

"Seriously, Alex?" Tina said in disbelief while a drop of sweat dropped from the back of her head. "You made me worry over your sleep? Geez..." She placed some fingers on her forehead and shook her head. Looking back at the animals Alex brought in, she thought to herself, (Hmm... At least the food he brought in will last a few days tops.)

Leaving her tired-as-hell brother dozing off on the sofa, she went to pick up the remote for their TV that is not far from her. She then turned on the TV. What came out on the TV screen is a cartoon show. "This episode, huh? *sigh* Why do they keep broadcasting the same episode over and over again every week? Is it really THAT fun to watch?" She then messed around with the remote, changing the channels on the TV every few seconds. That is, until she caught something that caught her interest. The evening news.

The report she managed to watch is about the disappearance of a kid. Her eyes went wide as she recognized the said missing kid.

"W-W-WHAT?! Noumi-chan?!" The person that appeared on the TV is a girl with long grayish-blond hair and blue eyes. She wears a white hat with what seems to be a giant button sewn together to the hat and wears a white cape above her school uniform. "Oh my god! How can she... Who would've kidnapped her?" Tina thought. And when she was deep in thought about her missing friend, she was taken back into reality when she saw the current news flash.

*From the TV*

"News Flash! We are currently live at the stadium. As you can see over there, there is a red giant dinosaur rampaging about in the stadium, breathing fire and stuff. *camera switches to helicopter's view* Everyone is running away from the dinosaur and the football game which is held today was called off due to the attack. And- Oh, look who's here. *turns camera to the right* The army! *shows rows of tanks lining up and assumed in an aiming position* And now, the army will try to take down the dinosaur by firing at will. *shows the tanks firing at the dinosaur which have little to no effect to the dinosaur, and then the camera pans to show the dinosaur shoot out fireball after fireball at the tanks, destroying one by one. this continued until around five tanks are left* What's this? The army is retreating? No way... We are losing this battle? It just can't be..."

Meanwhile, Tina was just watching with her face within an arm's reach from the TV screen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are losing against this one freaking dinosaur here. Now who will save us here?" *camera switches to cameraman on the ground's view* "Uh... Brad?" the cameraman spoke to the news reporter. "What is it?" the news reporter replied. "Over there..." the cameraman points to a certain direction and aimed the camera at the location of where he pointed at just now to see the dinosaur coming after them. "This is NOT GOOD!" The news reporter and the cameraman was frozen in place seeing that a dinosaur is walking towards them and opened its mouth wide. The cameraman recorded his last moments with the news reporter while watching the dinosaur opening its mouth wide and was about to grab them when...

"Mega Breath!"

**{16}**A voice is heard and a giant fireball, moving at near high speed, hit the red dinosaur head-on, knocking it over. When the camera pans over to the direction of where the larger fireball came from, they saw another dinosaur standing in front of them. But this one is orange in color with black stripes on its body. It has an armor with horns on its head. What caught their attention though is the person standing beside it. It was a boy in a blue T-shirt and brown pants with goggles on his head.

The boy shouted something and pointed at the red dinosaur lying in the opposite side. The orange dinosaur then charged at the red dinosaur, shouting all the way and fight with the red dinosaur for a long time before the orange dinosaur placed its tusk below the red dinosaur and flipped the red dinosaur over and knocking it out. But the orange one seemed not satisfied yet as it shoots out a fireball at the unconscious red one and the red one exploded into white particles. The orange dinosaur then picked up the boy and placed him on its head before running away.

The cameraman and the news reporter are left speechless at the turn of events. And so is Tina. She was like "Awesome!" while the news crew are like "What planet are we in right now?". The camera then switches to helicopter's view to see the damage the red dinosaur has dealt to the stadium and the surrounding areas.

Tina turned off the TV and then placed the remote on the TV before she went to sit on the sofa. She then thought to herself, "Man, our place just keep getting more and more dangerous each day. I wonder what is happening to our world now?"

Seeing that it was already sun down. So she went to the kitchen and began to prepare dinner for her and her brother.

* * *

_And so, the story ends here folks. It looks like more characters from many different worlds have appeared in this new world. Just where would their adventures take them? Will the group of now six finally be able to escape the never-ending forest? What will happen to the two prisoners? And what is that dinosaur? Find out in the next chapter of Tales of the Hyper-crossed Dimensions._

* * *

{Next time - Chapter 3 : The Mysterious Mansion in the Woods}

* * *

**Finally, the second chapter is done. Man, it's been hell doing this one. Took a really long time. Well, anyways how was the second chapter? Still as long as the first, I see? Well, I was going to make it shorter, but it somehow ended up the same length as the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy it. And if you find some mistakes here and there, I apologize in advance. But if you do find one, tell me about it. Thank you.**

* * *

**Feel free to listen to these BGM's at the marked points if you want.**

**{1} Harmonious Moment(X ver.) - Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X.**

**{2} I Feel So Happy Today - Tales of Destiny(PS2 Remake)**

**{3} La Dele Dele - Hyperdimension Neptunia**

**{4} Oooh, C'mon! - Tales of Legendia**

**{5} Take Up the Cross - Tales of Phantasia**

**{6} BARBATOS - Tales of Destiny 2**

**{7} Rising Fighting Spirit - Naruto**

**{8} Easygoing - Tales of Eternia**

**{9} Pleasantness - Tales of the Abyss**

**{10} Crisis - Tales of Eternia**

**{11} Tide on Edge - Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3**

**{12} ****Tenacity - Tales of Vesperia**

**{13} Konata's Theme - Lucky Star**

**{14} Swordland - Sword Art Online**

**{15} ****My Brave Smile - Little Busters**

******{16} Brave Heart - Digimon Adventure**

* * *

******Characters' Origins, excluding Alex and Tina.(Again, try your best and guess which character comes from what media)** **:**

Tales of Vesperia

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Sword Art Online

Busou Shinki

Disgaea

Rogue Galaxy

Tales of Graces

Fairy Bloom: Freesia

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2

Vividred Operation

Ace Attorney

Lucky Star


	3. Chapter 3

**Man, writing this chapter's been tiring for the past two weeks or something. Anyway, this is it. The third chapter. I decided to release the third chapter a bit early because there's another fanfic that I'm working on. And before you ask, yes this is another new one. But maybe, just maybe, it won't be about Hyperdimension Neptunia anymore. Well, anyway, Chapter Start!**

* * *

"So... any plans on getting out of here, dood?" Prinny asked his cellmate.

"Hmm... No. Hell, if I can get my sword back I'd busted my way out of here ages ago." Jaster replied.

"Oh... Yeah, you're probably right." Prinny said before drinking out from a bottle of milk.

"Hey, where'd you get that milk?" Jaster asked.

"Um... From my bag, dood. Why?" Prinny answered with an innocent expression.

"Wait, they let you keep your bag?" Jaster shouted in shock.

"Ye- Wait, what did you say, dood?" Prinny asked before slowly turning his head to his waist to see his bag still there, not taken away by the guards. "Oh my..." Prinny then facepalmed himself out of stupidity.

"So, what else did you have in that bag of yours?" Jaster asked.

Prinny messed about with his bag before looking surprised as if he had found something important.

"What?"

Prinny then took out a few bombs from his bag and lit them up. While laughing hysterically.

"Uh, what are you-"

"Stand back, dood. We're busting out of here." Prinny said as his eyes are filled with flames. And with that, Jaster barely had the time to roll out of the way as Prinny threw the bombs at the gate just as he said that. The bombs successfully blown the gates away, silently.

"You could've waited, you know!" Jaster shouted after having almost getting blown by the bombs. "Well, at least we're free. For now."

Prinny then grabbed his hands and led him out of the cell. "Well, come on. We don't want the guards to know we've busted ourselves out of the prison, right? So get moving." Prinny said with a deadpan look. And with that, they ran out of their cell, and out of the unguarded prison.

**[Loading...]**

{Chapter 3 : The Mysterious Mansion in the Forest}

"Rrrrnnggghh...!"

The background shows a group of six persons sleeping in the middle of a forest clearing. They are Neptune, Yuri, Purple Heart, Kirito, Strarf and Garen. They are sleeping although it seems that Neptune is moving around in her sleep. Has she got a nightmare going on?

"Nrgh! Rrrnghgnnngghh... OH MY, I NEED TO PEE!" Neptune shouted as she woke up. She holds her... crotch with her hands and stood up, looking around with panicking eyes. Apparently she was holding it in for a long time.

"Awrgh..." She then proceeds to wake Yuri up. "Hey, hey Yuri. Woohoo." she called out quietly. It took a while before Yuri finally grunts, indicating he is about to wake up.

"What is it? It's not my turn yet." Yuri said while still lying down, half-asleep.

"Yuri, can you help me with something?" Neptune asked.

"Oh, it's Neptune." He then proceeds to go back to his sleep.

"Oh, come on Yuri. I haven't even said anything yet."

"What do you want?" Yuri asked as if he was forced to. He even raised a hand with the signal of 'Go away, I'm busy.'

"Yuri, you think you can accompany me?"

"Accompany you where?"

"Well, um..." Neptune was having a hard time explaining and her face went red in embarrassment while she twiddles her index fingers.

"Come on."

"Well, uh... I... need to... uh..." There was a short silence before Yuri finally replied with a harsh tone.

"Why don't you just go and bug someone else? I'm tired." Yuri said before covering his eyes with his arm.

"But Yuri..."

"And don't forget I have a hurt leg." Yuri said before finally going back to sleep.

"Well, he is right. I can't bring him out, with his hurt leg and all." And then Neptune felt some pain in her crotch. "But I really need to pee...!" Her voice beginning to sound creaky now. She then run around for a little bit before going to Strarf.

"Hey. Psssst. Strafie." Neptune called out to wake her up, but she didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon. "Strafie, wake up." Neptune then shook her body hard enough to wake her up until Strarf finally wakes up.

"What is it?" Strarf said as she rubbed her eyes. "Oh, Neptune?"

"Strarf. I... uh... need a little favor of you." Neptune said with her reddened face.

"Neptune, you okay? Your face is turning red." Strarf asked, beginning to show some concern to Neptune.

"Um... well..."

"Are you sick or something?"

"Actually, Strafie. I need you to..."

*later*

"*sigh* So you brought me out here just to accompany you pee?" Strarf said rather flatly. Strarf is seen standing behind a tree nearby some bushes while Neptune is nowhere to be seen. But we can assume that Neptune is somewhere behind those bushes, since she's...well, you know...

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry. But it's too dark out here. I just don't think I can go alone, you know." Neptune said with a somewhat embarrassed tone.

"But you don't have to make it look like an emergency." Strarf said sternly.

"But it was urgent." Neptune replied, accidentally raising her voice.

"Whatever. Just hurry up. I still need to stand guard the camp."

"Okay, I'll try." And then there was a long silence. Strarf was just standing there while Neptune was... doing her thing. The growing silence is then broken out.

"Hey, Strafie. I think I'm all out of toilet paper now. Can you get me some more?" Neptune asked.

"What? Hello. We're in a forest, stupid. There are no toilet paper." Strarf said flatly.

"What? Oh... right... Hehe..." Even though we can't see her, Neptune actually sweatdropped. And so did Strarf. "Then, what am I gonna use to wipe it off?" Neptune then asked.

"Well... try some leaves or something. I don't know, I'm not a survival expert." Strarf shot back a rather harsh reply.

"Okay... But all blames on you if I got poison ivy or something." Neptune said in a singsong voice.

"Hmph!"

Meanwhile, in Neptune's POV... Neptune is seen crouching down, releasing all of her you-know-what. After she's done with that, she wiped it off before finally putting on her underwear and skirt again. When Neptune was about to walk towards Strarf, she caught a glimpse of a moving object. She thought she saw a figure of a person with a really huge hunchback walking around in the night mist.

She blinked a few times and still saw the walking person figure. She then rubbed her eyes in disbelief to confirm her sighting. But just after she rubbed her eyes, the figure was no longer to be seen.

"Hmm... I must be seeing things then."

Upon walking to Strarf, Neptune asked her if she saw anything like a moving person or such. And just when she thought that she really was just seeing things, a loud scream is heard. They tried to locate the source of the scream before Strarf pointed out in the direction. When Neptune saw where she was pointing, she suddenly had a really bad feeling in her guts as THAT's where she thought she saw the figure of a walking person.

Strarf rushed towards that direction before Neptune. Neptune then caught up with her. When they arrived at where they assume the spot of the scene, they saw a middle-aged blonde-haired lady with a really large backpack on her back, looking quite shocked as she pointed towards the ground in front of her.

"Hey, ma'am. Are you alright?" Strarf asked the lady. The lady didn't answer back, she seems to be quite shocked whatever incident that happened to her just now. "Hey, come on ma'am. Speak to me." Strarf beginning to show concern for the lady.

When Neptune looked towards where the lady was pointing at, she saw a shocking sight.

"Hey, I know who this is!" she shouted as she too began pointing towards the ground in front of her. When Strarf turned to see where she was pointing at, she finally saw and understood what she meant. It was a little girl. She has burn marks everywhere, she was dressed in a torn white dress. The girl has green hair(which now seems to have some black spots on it). She seems to be unconscious.

**[Loading...]**

In the distant field, we can see a tank moving around slowly. It's turret is moving left and right, hoping to not get ambushed by any lurking beasts especially this late at night.

"Where do you think are we now?" asked a girl's voice.

"I don't know, Mako-san. I don't recognize this place at all." replied another girl's voice.

The scene was dark, and when the scene brightens up, we can see that this scene is actually the inside of the aforementioned tank. Inside, we can see five girls operating the tank. There's a brown-haired one, a ginger-haired one, a greyish-brown haired one and two black-haired ones, one tall and one short.

They were currently wandering around, looking for a way out. But so far, their efforts bore no fruits. They are still lost in the forest, plus it's midnight now.

"*sigh* I sure hope we can get out of this one real quick." said the ginger-haired girl with an exhausted tone.

"Don't worry, Saori-san. Whatever happens, we will find a way out of here." said the brown-haired girl sitting on a seat slightly above the ginger-haired one.

"I know you're trying to cheer me up and all that, Miporin, but still..." The ginger-haired girl named Saori then tried to fiddle around with her radio and her cellphone, hoping to at least get a weak signal, but all that came out of them are buzz noises. "Lately, I've been trying to contact the others, but they just don't seem to work." she said in disappointment in her tone.

"Well, what do you think? We're in a forest so to speak." said the short-black-haired girl.

"Hush, Mako-san! That's rude of you to say things like that in this situation." scolded the longer-black-haired girl to the shorter-black-haired one apparently named Mako. She then placed her hand on Saori's shoulder. "Don't worry, Saori-san. I'm sure we will get out of here eventually." the longer-black-haired girl reassured Saori.

"T-Thanks, Hana-san." Saori thanked the longer-black-haired girl, Hana.

"Say, Miho-senpai," a greyish-brown-haired girl called out to Miho, the brown-haired girl sitting at the top. "are you sure we're gonna be fine? I mean, we've been travelling all day now and I don't know if this thing can take some more."

"What made you say that, Yukari-san?" Miho, the brown-haired girl said puzzled.

"Well, it's because we don't have much fuel left." Yukari, the greyish-brown-haired girl said while pointing at the fuel meter. It was indeed 3/4 empty.

"Wow, it's already that much?" Mako said.

"Well, what do we do now? We need to stop somewhere, Miho-san." Hana said with her ever-calming voice.

"Yeah. And I do not want to sleep in here, Miporin. I mean, it's cramped here." Saori complained.

"Well, you are right about that..." Miho said nervously.

"So, where to stop? I'm getting sleepy here." Mako said while trying to keep herself awake.

"Oh no. Mako-san! Don't fall asleep yet!" Miho shouted while kicking her shoulder to not let her fall asleep. "Anyone. Take Mako-san's place for a while. I need to find a good spot for resting." The others nodded in agreement.

And so, Yukari replaced Mako in the driving spot and drove the tank while Miho searched for a resting ground.

"Ah-ha! Yukari-san. Make a slight right turn." Miho commanded.

"Right." And then Yukari did as told. And after driving for a little while, Miho suddenly commanded Yukari to stop the tank. And when the tank finally stopped, they shut the tank down and got out of the tank while bringing their camping tents. It looks like they have found a clearing as a resting ground.

"You know, it's a good thing I brought our camping tents with us. I always knew situations like these will happen." Yukari said.

"You mean, getting transported to a completely foreign place?" Saori asked. There was a short silence before Yukari finally spoke, changing the subject.

"Anyway, I'd better be setting up the tents then."

"While I make some cosy fire to heat our body with." Hana said before going out to look for firewoods which she found a few seconds later, leaving Miho with Saori who was carrying Mako on her back. After that, she set up the fire in the middle of the clearing they're at. And a few minutes later, all five tents were set up and ready to be used. They placed Mako inside her tent and they got into their own tents and slept.

**[Loading...]**

"Get them!"

"They couldn't have run that far already."

"Don't let them escape!"

"How did they even get out?"

...were the shouts of the guards at the castle. And currently hiding behind a wall around the corner behind the running guards were Jaster and Prinny. They were observing the guards movements. When the place is free of guards, they continue running stealthily to avoid being captured by the guards. They ran in hallways, turned around corners until they eventually came to a stop as the area they were about to go to was filled with a few guards.

"Damn. There're guards here." Jaster said, gritting his teeth.

"Uh... I don't think we can get past that, dood." Prinny said with a cowardly tone.

"Yeah. And we still don't have our weapons yet." Jaster said before resuming to observe the guards movements. "Now if we can just find the weapon storage room..." And then Jaster felt something on his shoulder.

"Here, use this." Prinny said while handing over the object he's holding.

"Thanks."

"Now let's take 'em out, dood."

Jaster began to mindlessly aim the object at the guards in front of him before realizing that the object he was holding was a silenced sniper rifle. "Wait, where did you get this from now?" Jaster asked.

"At the weapon storage room to our right, Jaster." Prinny replied while pointing to his right with his left flipper. He was then smacked at the head by Jaster.

"Then why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Eh? A...hahaha..." Prinny just stood there laughing nervously. Jaster then dragged Prinny along into the weapon storage room.

Once inside he began searching for his weapons, a sword and a gun while Prinny began to search for his, two swords and a whip. It took them a while until they actually found the weapons they were looking. After that, they went out of the room and returned to their previous positions. Jaster observed the situation in front of them and saw the guards which were previously there were no longer there.

So they continued their way and managed to cover a reasonably large area before coming to a stop again. This time, there was a commotion as smoke appeared out of nowhere and when the smoke cleared, they were me a sword swinging at them, ready to kill them. Luckily Jaster was able to block it in time with his sword while Prinny just spun around, panicking. And standing in front of him was a girl dressed in a white-and-green dress with several ghost insignias on them as well a ghost insignia on her left breast. She has silver hair and wears a black bow on her hair.

"So, you're one of the guards too, I assume?" Jaster asked. The girl didn't answer. Instead, her right hand quickly reached for her left waist and pulled out a dagger and attempted to slash at Jaster's face, but was stopped by one of Prinny's swords.

"Hmph. You two are quite good." She then jumped back, releasing the swords' grasps and entered her battle stance. She stared at Jaster and Prinny and observed them. "So, you're Flynn Scifo?" the girl asked.

"Flynn Scifo? Now who would that be?" said Jaster, looking puzzled.

"Dood. You must've had the wrong person. He's not Flynn, he's Jaster." Prinny corrected her. Then she pointed her sword at Prinny's neck.

"Sorry, but you're not going to trick me that easily, Flynn's... sidekick." the girl said. "And besides, he fits the description. Blonde hair, formal clothes, uses a sword to fight... So that proves it that he's Flynn."

"You know what? I don't care if you want to kill me, but all I care now is getting out of here. So will you be so please as to let us walk pass?" Jaster said to the girl before the girl blocked his path with her sword.

"I'm sorry, but it is my priority to finish my job at all cost." she said.

"Damn...!" Master slowly entered his battle stance. "Looks like you leave me no choice then." He then turned to Prinny. "Prinny, you too."

"Sure thing, dood." Prinny too then readied his swords, entering his battle stance.

Things here heating up here as Jaster, Prinny and the weird girl were staring at each other and was about to engage in a battle until a large net dropped on all of them.

"Hey. What gives, dood?"

"Damn. It looks like we've walked into one of their traps." Master said while struggling to get out of the net. "And it looks like someone was caught in her own trap too." It turns out the girl was also caught in the trap.

"Nice work, everyone. It looks like we have caught the escapees." said a blonde-haired knight behind them.

"Good work, Flynn. But how did you know they were here?" said a maroon-haired knight standing beside the blonde-haired knight. She then turned to the girl who's also caught with the other two. "Hmm... Who's this girl? And how did she get caught too?"

"You!" the girl shouted at the blonde-haired knight. "What the?" She then looked back and forth between Jaster and the blonde knight. "Damn, I was attacking the wrong person."

"Wait... wrong person?" Jaster said, puzzled.

"What do you mean, "wrong person", dood?" Prinny asked.

"That's quite simple to explain, actually." a deep voice said from behind the two knights. Standing behind them is a knight who is holding a large shield and a large sword, wearing a red-colored armor. He was observing the three caught in the net.

"C-Captain! Everything's under control here." the maroon-haired knight greeted the captain while saluting him.

"Captain Heathcliff!" the blonde-haired knight also saluted the captain. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much. I was going to see if the escapees were actually caught. And there they are." Heathcliff said in a calm voice. He then turned to the girl. "And it seems like we have an uninvited guest here." Heathcliff then leaned closer to the girl. "So tell me girl. Who are you and who sent you here?" He said as he held the sword at her neck.

"Woawoawoa, woah! Wait a second! So you're telling me that she's not one of yours?" Jaster asked while repeatedly looking back and forth at Heathcliff and the girl beside him.

Heathcliff chuckled before answering him. "Now why would she be one of our soldiers if her job was to assassinate Flynn?"

"What did you say, Captain?" Flynn, the blonde-haired knight asked in surprise.

"How did you know why I was sent here for?" the girl asked, surprised.

"It seems that you did not know who I am..." he paused for a while before continuing, pressing http next words he is going to say next. "...Youmu Konpaku."

"Youmu Konpaku?" One of the guards said.

"You mean the Silent Assassin who assassinates nobles and royal people?" The maroon-haired knight said, surprised.

"Yes, that's the one. I'm surprised that know that you guys have even heard of her before."

"Yes, we've heard of her before, but..."

"To be honest though, we didn't think it would be a girl." Flynn said while rubbing the back of his head. "And I'm sure I'm as surprised as Asbel would be."

"Hey!" Asbel, the maroon-haired knight shouted. "But you are right though. Even I didn't think that Youmu is a girl."

"Uh... I'm not trying to be rude or something, dood, but... what are you guys talking about again? I didn't really get it." Prinny suddenly said after being silent the whole conversation.

"You know what, enough of this conversation." Heathcliff said with a slightly stern tone. "Commandant Flynn! Commander Asbel!"

"Y-Yes, sir!" both knights answered simultaneously.

"Take these three to their cells, but a different one this time." Heathcliff commanded the two.

"Yes sir!"

"Oh, and one more thing. Take away their weapons and store them somewhere else. And remove that bag from the penguin too." Heathcliff said before walking away. And the soldiers did as told, although they had problems removing the bag from Prinny. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

Just as he walked away, Flynn and Asbel brought the net containing the three prisoners up and carried them somewhere. Meanwhile, from a distance away we can see Heathcliff talking to a pink-haired girl in white.

"Are you sure we're fine for now?" asked the pink-haired girl.

"You don't have to worry about anything, milady. I'm sure those three can get them busy and put them someplace away from harm's way." Heathcliff reassured the girl.

"I-I see..."

"Now why don't you go back to sleep, milady? Everything has been taken care of. And besides, you have a meeting to attend to tomorrow."

"Yes. I'll do that." And after that, Heathcliff walked away. At the same time, she was deep in her thoughts. She seems sad about something.

"Hmm... Those three... They might be my ticket to getting out of here..." She muttered under her breath in a disappointed tone.

Meanwhile, somewhere outside the castle...

A girl with golden hair was walking while holding plastic bags filled with groceries. She looked at the bright castle which was supposed to be dim like all buildings especially at 6.00 a.m. in the morning(assuming the sun rises at 7.00 a.m.).

"Hmm... I wonder if there any commotion in there?" she said to herself. Curious about the castle, she approached the castle guards and asked them about her suspicions.

"Well, it seems like some of our prisoners are trying to make a run for it and we're trying to re-capture them back." guard #1 said.

"And also, it seems that our castle has been intruded by an assassin." guard #2 said.

"Oh, really?" the girl replied.

"Yes. But you don't have to worry about anything, young lady. They'll surely be captured any minute from now."

"Yeah. Besides, when our Captain is around, there's no escaping him once he pursues you."

"Woah..." the girl whistled.

"But there's something weird about you though." guard #1 said.

"What's weird?" she asked. She suddenly began to sweat.

"What's a girl like you doing here during this time of the day?" guard #1 asked.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" guard #2 asked.

"Well yes, but I was just returning from the grocery store. I need ingredients to cook breakfast for our family." Tina answered.

"Oh, okay. But remember, do not go out alone again."

"Who knows? You might get robbed on the way home."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Geez, I'm not a little kid anymore." she shrugged. "And besides, I'm capable of defending myself from attacks."

"Hey, we're not making fun of you or anything. We're just giving you a warning, that's all." guard #2 said.

"Besides, just recently an old couple was robbed and accidentally killed when they were walking to the grocery store in the early mornings. Haven't you heard of that before?" guard #1 said.

"Actually, that's news to me." she now began to feel scared. "But why wasn't it broadcasted in the news?"

"I... don't actually know myself..."

"Actually, it's because the news media thought it was just a simple, insignificant matter. Insignificant matter my ass!" The guard then pressed his fist so hard they can hear the sounds of clanking metal.

"Now that's cruel." she gasped.

"Well, you better hurry home now. You do not want to get kidnapped or anything now." guard #1 said.

"R-Right!"

"And don't worry. If there's ever anything you need, like protection or something, then you can come to us." guard #2 said.

"OK. I guess I'll be going now." She then hurried to her house, afraid of getting kidnapped after hearing about the story. "Well Helena. You better get home quick so that you can see darling in the morning. And to avoid being kidnapped!" she muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, the castle guards just watched as the girl ran off at great speed.

"Do you think we should call her back and apologize to her?" guard #1 asked guard #2. "I mean, we've told her a pretty good lie."

"I don't know. I mean, I can't believe she actually believed that." guard #2 said.

"Man, now I feel bad."

"Me too."

**[Loading...]**

"So that's pretty much what happened, eh?" Yuri asked while looking at the unconscious girl in front of him, yawning.

"Yep. That's pretty much it." Neptune answered.

"So do you really know her, Neptune?" Kirito asked.

"Not really, but I've met her before. I think it was 2 days ago, I think."

"Whatever the case, this girl needs serious treatment." Garen said while looking at the unconscious girl.

"Just how did she got herself injured like that?" Purple Heart said while cupping her chin. "And surely it wasn't because this lady here trampled her, but what?"

"I told you, I only stumbled upon her. She was already unconscious when I found her." the blonde-haired woman said, waving her hands in protest.

"And that doesn't make it more convincing, now does it?" Strarf said while she glared at the blondie.

"But at the very least, she's still alive. So it's okay, I guess." Kirito said while his face shows concern to the unconscious girl.

"But really. You said you know her, Neptune. So who is she?" Yuri asked.

"Jeepers, I don't know. She never told me her name when we met." Neptune explained.

"Well then," Purple Heart paused for a while before continuing. "if we want to get to know her, the best bet's to wait for her to wake up."

Garen cleared his throat to get everybody's attention. "Well then, we're going to need two people to be up for now. One person watches the whole camp while the other watches us and this girl here." he told his idea.

"No no no." the blondie suddenly protested. "Let me look after her while any one of you watches over the whole camp."

"Sounds good to me." Yuri said before he fell asleep in a split second.

"Same for me." Neptune followed Yuri into sleep.

"I guess it's time for me to take a break anyways." Kirito said before he too fell asleep as well.

"Boys..." Purple Heart facepalmed. "Well then, who's staying up?"

"I'll be staying up." Garen replied.

"You will, huh? Then you don't mind if we..."

"Go ahead. I'll keep watch over us."

"Okay then. I trust you on this one." Purple Heart said before finally snoozing off.

"I guess I'll be sleeping too then." Strarf then sleep beside Kirito for some reason.

After watching as one by one his party members fall asleep, he then sit closer to the blondie. "So, uh... what's your name, lady?"

"Rumi. Rumi Aikawa." the blondie introduced herself. "And you?"

"Garen."

"Just Garen? No family name or something?" Rumi asked.

"Full name, huh? Okay, then. It's Garen Crownguard." He then looked at the blondie sitting beside her and gave her a small smile. "Why'd you ask? Interested in me?"

"N-N-No way! N-Now w-why would I be interested in you when I-I just met you and hardly even know you?" Rumi protested while her face turned red.

Garen chuckled at the way she's acting now. "Hahaha... I'm joking. Don't worry about it."

"Seriously..." And then, when she looked at Garen, he now has a serious expression on his face. "Uh... What's wrong, Mr. Crownguard?"

"Please, just call me Garen." He then cleared his throat for something he's about to say. "So, Rumi. May I ask you about something?"

"Y-Yes. What is it?" Rumi began stuttering. While it doesn't look like it outside, but inside she's actually getting nervous as she thought something weird. (Oh no. Is this gonna be some kind of proposal or something? He can't just fall in love with me on first sight, can he?)

"Rumi, do you have any memories of yourself before a certain timeline?" Garen asked.

Rumi, upon hearing this, managed to pull herself together as she actually heard the question clearly. "W-What?"

"To put it simple, do you remember anything that happened to you before... you... woke up in the forest?"

"Wait, how did you know I woke up in this forest?"

"*sigh* I see..." Garen's face clearly showed disappointment. "Well, guess what? So did I. I also woke up in this forest around three days ago. And so did they." he said while pointing at their sleeping friends.

"So... They also didn't have memories of themselves from the past and also woke up in this forest, huh? That's sad..." Rumi then looked down and wondered how and why was she here in the first place and who she actually is, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find the answer eventually." Garen then brought the blonde closer and hugged her from the side. Suddenly Rumi broke free from Garen and rushed to her bag. "What is it? You need some medicine?"

After messing about with her bag, she then finally took out a box of first-aid kits. "Uh... what's with that?" Garen then turned to the unconscious girl next to him. "Oh..."

"I can't believe I forgot to bring this out to treat her. Don't worry, as I was a... travelling someone, I should be capable of defending and treating myself, right? So that's why I have this first-aid here." Rumi then proceed to treat the unconscious girl with her bandages and after a while, she's finished treating her.

"You know, it would've been easier for you to pull out the first-aid kit when they're awake."

"Why?"

"See that boy over there?" Garen points at Yuri. "He's got a broken leg."

"Oh. Why didn't you tell me?" Rumi then appraoched Yuri.

"I wouldn't wake him up if I were you." Garen warned her.

"I wasn't going to." Rumi replied.

"Then what are you-"

"Just be quiet." Rumi then shushed him.

Garen then watched as Rumi pulled out her first-aid kits and started working her way to slowly lifting Yuri's trousers until she found the "broken" spot. She then applied some medicinal ointment on the "broken" part and wrapped his legs with bandages. After a few minutes, she's finally done with the wrappings.

"Well, he should be good within a few days or so." Rumi said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Well, that's good to hear."

"EEEEK!"

And Yuri suddenly wakes up. "So you were treating my leg, eh? And here I thought you were doing something else..." Yuri teased her.

"Y-Y-You were awake the whole time?" Rumi asked, flailing her hands.

"Yeah, you can pretty much say I felt everything." Yuri replied with a smirk.

"Yuri, I think you should stop teasing her so much." Garen deadpanned.

"Just kidding. But really, it's good to know you can treat the wounds on my leg. Thanks."

Rumi then blushed when Yuri thanked her. "I-It's nothing. A soldier has to know a few things about first-aid, right?"

"You're a soldier, Rumi?" Garen said.

"I think so. I am just the supplier guy, after all. Not much of a soldier if I say so myself." Rumi said while rubbing the back of her head.

"Well... at least you're capable of defending yourself." Yuri said. He then reached out his hand towards her. "The name's Yuri Lowell. You?"

"Rumi Aikawa. Nice to meet you." Rumi then shook hands with Yuri.

"*ahem* You know, seeing that there probably won't be any monsters around here to attack us, why don't we rest and sleep?" Garen said, yawning.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm *yawn* getting pretty sleepy myself. *yawn* I'll get some sleep then." Rumi said while yawning and stretching all the way.

"Well then, good night." Yuri bid them before lying on the ground. He watched as Rumi and Garen lie on the ground next to him and went to sleep within seconds. Yuri then gazed at the stars above. "Wow. We just got more people to travel with today. And just the first day... of my memories here... to think that I initially started with Neptune." he said quietly to himself. And after that, he finally went back to sleep.

Meanwhile, at some shrine somewhere in the mountains...

A girl in red and white dress can be seen walking around the shrine. She was walking towards the entrance door.

"Brrrr... It's so chilly outside." she said as she wrapped herself as to shield herself from the cold air outside. "And why now of all times was I asked to exterminate some "youkai" which turned out to be children playing with firecrackers? I mean, what gives? Mistaking firecrackers for fire spells like that. And it was a faraway place too." She then let out a sigh. "But it should be cold since winter is closing in." Before she enters her shrine which is also her house, she checked everything outside of her shrine to make sure that nothing's missing. She then calmly walked into her shrine before running out a few seconds later and knelt on the ground in front of her shrine. She then began rubbing her hands on the ground, searching for something.

"No... It has to be somewhere around here..." After searching for a while and found nothing, her eyes became wide as saucers and screamed into the sky.

"MY DONATION BOX!"

******[Loading...]**

The next day...

The scene shows five tents being set up around a fire which was already out of fire. Then out from one of the tents came out a girl with greyish-brown in white school dress with a trumpet in her hand. She then blew the trumpet quite loud to wake the others up.

"Alright! Rise and shine, girls!"

And then, one by one, three girls came out from each of their respective tents, save for one where a girl seems to be absent.

"My, my. Mako's still sleeping, huh?" Yukari sighed. She then walked into Mako's tent only to find her still sleeping. "Come on, Mako-san. Wake up. We need to move on." Yukari then shook Mako's body vigorously. At first Mako was stubborn, but after being shaken for a while she finally gave in and woke up.

"Enough already. I can wake up on my own just fine, you know!" Mako snarled at Yukari who is laughing sheepishly.

After walking out of the tent, Miho then spoke. "Well then. Now that everyone's here, how about we move on?"

"We're on the move already?" Mako protested. "Don't you think it's a bit... early?"

"Yeah, she's right. Why don't we wait for a while before moving, Miporin?" Saori said while wiping her eyes.

"I'm still sleepy. Don't you think we should wait to let our body to recover for a while first, Miho-san?"

Miho then thought about it for a while. "Well, you are right though..." No sooner than she had said that, they heard their tank's engines revved up and roared for a bit. And then all of them turned to the girl sitting at the tank's observation seat while giving her scary looks. She managed to overlook their glares and shouted, "Come on, I'm all ready to go."

"Um... Yukari-san..." Miho said nervously.

"Alright then. Panzer vor!" Yukari shouted as she went inside the tank. Everyone else sweatdropped, Miho sweatdropping multiple times.

"What's gotten into her?"

**[Loading...]**

The scene now shows the campsite where our strange group of now eight people are sleeping. They are sleeping as soundly as they ever have. And then we can see someone stirred and starting to wake up. It turns out to be Kirito. When he woke up, he watched his surroundings and was relieved to see that everyone was still there. And just moments later, Yuri woke up.

"Good morning, Yuri." Kirito greeted him.

"Oh, Kirito? *yawn* Good morning." Yuri greeted back. "You're up early."

"I'm always up early." Kirito then noticed the bandages on Yuri's leg. "Those bandages..." He then noticed the bandages on the green-haired girl's body. "Those bandages... They're the same."

"Oh, these? Well, if you want some, then you can always ask Rumi over there." Yuri said as he pointed towards Rumi with his thumb.

"Rumi? The traveler girl, right?" Strarf asked.

"Yep. And why am I not surprised to see you've waken up without our knowledge?" Yuri said sarcastically.

"What?" Strarf tilted her head sideways. "Am I supposed to make you startled or something?"

"No. I guess it only happened to Neptune then." Kirito shrugged.

"What only happens to me actually?" Neptune said out of the blue. Yuri and Kirito, along with Strarf, jumped before turning around and found Neptune standing behind them.

"I just knew it. I just freaking knew it." Yuri muttered to himself.

"Oh, come on. It's not like it happens every time, right?" Neptune said playfully.

"Seriously..."

"Hey, so what's the commotion here?" Garen asked the four.

"Oh, nothing. It just seems that Neptune is full of energy today, as usual." Kirito replied.

"Well, things are getting quite lively pretty early in the morning today." Rumi said while rubbing the sands off her eyes. "Oh, is everyone awake?"

"Not yet, it seems." Yuri said. Rumi then walked towards Yuri and inspected his hurt leg.

"Is your leg getting better?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks to you, I can walk now." Yuri said as he wiggled his hurt leg. "But I don't think I can run yet."

"Aw, that's sad..." Neptune said.

"You know, hearing from you it doesn't sound like sympathy at all." Yuri deadpanned.

And then the lady of the group finally woke up. "*yawn* Oh, you guys are already awake."

"Finally someone decides to wake up." Garen teased her. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah. Haven't got any rest this good actually." Purple Heart then looked at Rumi. "Hey, it's that girl from yesterday. So she's staying with us?"

"For now, at least. At least until we got into a town or somewhere that is not here." Kirito said while cupping his chin to think. "But really? I wonder where we are right now?"

"In the forest?" Neptune said innocently.

"Like we don't know it already, Captain Obvious." Yuri sarcastically mocked Neptune.

"What he meant is what continent or country or more importantly, in what world are we in, stupid." Strarf deadpanned.

"Well, I do have a GPS, but..." Rumi said before being cut off.

"You have a GPS? Then why didn't you-" Purple Heat said before being cut off in return.

"But it's not working. I mean, look." Rumi then turned on her GPS and all that came out from her GPS was some buzzing sound and a black screen.

"You know, from the looks of this, it looks like even the GPS is broken, not just the navigation system." Kirito said while sweatdropping.

"Wait, it wasn't like this yesterday."

"Maybe it's almost out of battery?" Strarf asked. But before they could continue, they heard some grunting somewhere. They turned around and saw that the green-haired girl was finally waking up.

"Well, look who's waking up now."

**[Loading...]**

The scene now shows a tank moving around in some forest.

"Seen anything yet, Miho-senpai?" Yukari asked out of the blue.

"Nope. Nothing but trees so far." Miho let out a heavy sigh.

"Well, what do you expect? We're still in the forest." Mako snarled. "And besides, it was your idea to move so early in the morning."

"I know that, but..."

"Now, now, don't fight. Let's all just calm down and not fight, okay?" Hana stopped the fight.

"Yeah, don't fight, especially this early." Saori supported Hana.

Mako and Yukari then calmed down. "Mako-san, focus while driving, okay? We don't want to end up somewhere dangerous, okay?" Miho told Mako.

"Okay, and if that does happen, I blame you, Yukari-san."

"Whatever." Yukari shrugged in defeat.

Meanwhile... somewhere else in the same forest... there is another tank with a large turret and two vulcan gun on its sides moving around. From the entrance hatch, the head of a brown-haired girl with glasses looked around before going back in. And now the scene transitions into the inside of the tank.

"Seen anything yet, Fio?" asked the driver, a brown-haired man in a yellow vest with white shirt underneath and green trousers.

"No. Nothing yet." Fio, the aforementioned brown-haired girl with glasses in a brown light vest with white shirt underneath and brown shorts, answered with disappointment in her tone. "Where do you think we are anyway Tarma?"

"I don't know Fio, but it's definitely not Earth." a blonde-haired girl in a green light vest with a white shirt underneath and green shorts, replied.

"Yeah yeah, Eri. We've figured that out ages ago, just so you know." Tarma said sarcastically.

"Well, excuse me!" Eri sulked.

"Guys, stop it! We don't have time for arguing right now." shouted a male voice from above them. The three then turned to where the sound came from and a yellow-haired man in a red vest with a white shirt underneath and green trousers is seen. "We still need to find a way out of here, dammit."

"Hey, watch it pal. It's not like you know any better about where we are now." Tarma shouted at the yellow-haired man.

"Yeah, and it's not like you know about it any better too, now do ya?" the yellow-haired man shot back another harsh reply.

"Marco, Tarma... Please. Stop fighting." Fio tried to break the fight between the two men, but to no avail as her attempt to stop the fight actually intensified the fight even more.

"Oh yeah! If you're so smart, then why don't you lead the way, leader?" Tarma snarled while intentionally focusing on the word "leader".

"All right, that's it! I've had enough of this!" And just like that, Marco and Tarma fought each other while driving the tank. Tarma, forgetting that he's driving a tank, released the steering wheel and struggled to keep Marco away from him. The struggling made him accidentally pressed on the accelerate pedal a little bit too hard, which brought them to move at a higher speed.

"Get away from me, will ya!"

"How about you get away from me?"

Eri and Fio struggled to break the fight apart, but she had no progress in doing that. Fio, worrying about where the tank might be led into, look up in the outside-view deck and saw something in their path. Realizing this, she quickly shouted to get the two men's attentions.

"Watch out! You're driving into something!"

Tarma and Marco immediately broke the fight themselves and returned to their own posts. Tarma tried to control the tank's speed, but it was of too late as the tank hit that 'something' anyway. Fio bumped her head on the deck, Eri was lying around the seat with her face down while Tarma and Marco was still okay. As Fio recovers, she popped her head out of the hatch and took a look outside and saw that that 'something' that they hit was actually... another tank about half of their tank's size.

Meanwhile from the smaller tank, another girl's head popped out from the entrance hatch. She looked outside out of her tank and saw the bigger tank in front of them. She also saw the girl in said tank. The other girl also saw her. They stared at each other while the wind blows.

**[Loading...]**

"Oh... I see..."

"So that's what happened."

"Yes. I'm glad you were able to understand my situation." said a girl with green hair. She was sobbing. "Again, thank you for taking care of me while I'm out cold."

"It's okay, Freesia. You weren't a burden to us at all. We're just glad to help you." Kirito reassured her.

"Thanks, but just how long was I out again?" Freesia asked for confirmation.

"I don't exactly know, but we found you out cold last night, so..." Strarf said while assuming her thinking position. She then started counting with her fingers before being cut off by Yuri.

"That makes it a day, I guess." Yuri continued where Strarf left off.

"But really. You scared the hell out of me." Rumi said. "I thought I really have killed you. Thank goodness you're still alive."

"Sorry about that." Freesia apologized. She then stared at the ground in front of her and closed her eyes, tears flowing out. "But still... Master Jomon..."

"Oh, no no. Don't cry." Neptune tried to calm her down, but Freesia kept crying.

"I can't sense him anymore. He really is dead, isn't he?" Nobody could answer the question, but before anyone could even utter a word, she slumped herself against a tree nearby all the while covering her face with her hands, sobbing. "I can't believe it. I failed to protect him." She continued to cry.

Nobody tried to calm her down as they thought about the poor old man that she was trying to protect so much.

"Now that he's gone, this forest is not gonna be safe anymore." Freesia continued.

Everyone sat around her. consoling her for the while. They decided not to move until Freesia has finally calmed down. Neptune then hugged her in hoping to be able to support her this way.

"Don't worry, Freesie! I'm here to help you." she whispered.

**[Loading...]**

The girls in their own tanks kept staring at each other. They have been staring for a while now. The tanks themselves then backed up for a bit to gain some distance between them.

On Miho's side...

"Miporin. What do you think we should do now?" Saori asked her, already feeling afraid.

"I don't know, but just to be safe don't do anything yet." Miho told her.

Meanwhile on Fio's side...

"Marco. There's another tank over there." Fio told him.

"Yeah. I can see that." Marco replied harshly.

"What should we do about it then?" Eri then asked Marco.

"I don't know. How about if we try to-" Just as he was about to word his orders, Marco and co. heard a shot somewhere. It turns out that the tank in front of them has fired a shot. Although missed, it hit a tree behind their tank.

Meanwhile on Miho's side...

Everyone was looking quite shocked and terrified by the sudden shot. They were frozen in place and speechless.

"Hana-san! What were you thinking?" Yukari scolded.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't me. I-It's Mako-san." Hana accused.

"What? Now how come it was me? It was definitely you, since you are in the turret seat." Mako replied.

"But... If you didn't startle me when you suddenly tried to move and made that loud sudden noise, then..."

"But you were going to admit that you fired that shot, right?" Mako smirked.

"Guys, guys... Just calm down." Saori said in an attempt to break that fight. "Just calm down." Saori began to sweat a lot now.

Meanwhile on Fio's side...

"Man, whoever's in there must've had some guts to fire a shot at us." Marco shouted in excitement.

"Yeah, man. They totally did not know what they're up against." Tarma said while fixing his sunglasses's position.

"But Marco. Don't you think we should just leave them?" Fio said to Marco.

"What? You wanna let them get away with it?" Eri said to Fio. Eri then slapped her forehead. "Geez, Fio. You're too kind, even to enemy forces."

"But, but... What if they just had some malfunctions in their systems and-"

"And what? Misfired by accident?" Tarma asked with a smirk. "Oh come on now. They really wanted to fight us that badly, huh?"

"No, that's not what you're getting into."

"Yeah, and if they misfired at us, then I'll miss-fire them!" Marco said as he loaded a shell into the turret.

Meanwhile on Miho's side...

"Guys, will you just stop fighting?" Yukari pleaded for Hana and Mako to stop fighting.

"Just stop it. I can't take it anymore!" Saori too pleaded but to no avail. Mako and Hana kept on fighting.

"Seriously, you guys are hopeless." Miho sighed. While they were in chaos down there, Miho looked outside from the observation deck and saw the other tank had aimed their turret down towards them. Immediately, she shouted and commanded Mako to drive away from the scene. Mako and the others down there, on the other hand didn't hear Miho's command. Miho commanded them the same order a few times, sadly all of them are ignored. And then, they felt the ground shake nearby. Miho took a look outside and saw a big explosion right behind them. And also it looked like the other tank's turret is smoking, which means they have just fired its first shot.

"Miho-senpai, what's that shaking?" Yukari asked.

Miho slowly turned her head around in fear. "That... was the other tank's cannon."

"What?!" the others shouted in terror. And quicker than she had ever done before, everyone got into their own positions and Mako sped off to the back in great haste.

"Let's get the hell out of here! They're really going to kill us!"

"That power... They're the real deal. It's not a joke." Miho muttered to herself. "Come on, Mako-san. Drive faster!"

"Does it look like I'm going slow to you? This is the fastest this thing can go!" Mako snarled at Miho.

Meanwhile on Fio's side...

"Good. Run like the little chicken you are." Tarma said quietly.

"Oh hell yeah! I'm totally enjoying this!" Marco shouted.

Fio, on the other hand, seems to be worried for the tank they're chasing now. "That tank only got small rounds. They never stood a chance against us. Oh man, if only we could get out of this situation."

*Meanwhile*

The scene shows a big mansion somewhere. Outside the mansion is a boy with light-blue hair in a butler uniform. He was sweeping the garden when he heard explosions coming from the mansion's other massive garden.

"Oh no. Now who could be blowing up stuff in Mistress' garden? Whoever they are, I'll put a stop to it." He then leapt and vanished into the thin air before reappearing on the garden.

**[Loading...]**

After finally calmed down, Freesia stopped crying and was now able to go on like normal.

"Finally you've calmed down."

"Now we can finally start moving on."

"Hey, you guys. You want to get out of this forest, right?" Freesia then offered her assistance in finding a way out.

"Wait, for real?" Yuri said in surprise.

"For really reals?" Rumi's eyes began to glitter.

"Yes. This is the least I can do as thanks for saving me." Freesia said before turning around. "Well then let me show you the way out."

"Really? Oh wowzers! Now that's awesomesauce!" Neptune jumped up and down in joy.

Freesia then led the team out of the forest and not long after, they finally reached out of the forest. But what they saw in front of them was a surprise.(Freesia was surprised too) Standing in front of them was a big mansion. It was really big and magnificent.

"Wow. Now who would put a big house right in the middle of the forest here?" Neptune casually asked.

"Beats me."

But what stood out from the rest was its cleanliness. It looked very clean as if someone was staying here recently. No... that's not the right word. It's like as if someone is still staying here. Everyone was quite awed by the mansion and didn't even realize there was a white tiger behind them. The tiger was about to pounce on one of them from behind but he sneezed before he could pounce, thus giving off his position to the eight. Neptune turned around and saw the tiger.

"T-Tiger!"

Everyone else looked behind them and ran away on their first instinct, seeing that the tiger was ready to pounce again.

Meanwhile the blue-haired boy was rushing towards the explosion when they heard screams coming from the mansion. Although he was unsure whose screams those weer, but since he heard more girl screams than boy screams, he began assuming it was his Mistress.

"A scream? Oh no, Mistress!" He then rushed back to the mansion, forgetting about the explosion that occurred just now.

The group of eight was being chased by the white tiger around the mansion. They were tired, yet they didn't stop to avoid being eaten alive by the tiger. They ran and ran until Rumi tripped. The others turned around to see the tiger leaping onto Rumi. They stood there frozen as they watched Rumi about getting pounced until...

*BAM*

The boy with blue hair kicked the tiger from the sides and chased it away. He then turned towards the group of eight. "Hey, you guys alright?" he asked with a bright smile on his face. "Sorry about that tiger just now. Our pet just doesn't know how to treat guests, I guess."

"YOUR PET?!" Of course the eight just sat there with their mouth agape, surprised to hear that the tiger was his freaking pet.

**[Loading...]**

The aforementioned tanks are now chasing each other.(The bigger one chases the smaller one) The bigger tank was giving the smaller tank a chase through the forest, hunting it down like a lion chasing its prey. So they chased around the forest, the bigger one shooting their cannon rounds, missing its target. Instead, it destroyed lots of trees around them, but they didn't care. Until the smaller tank is shot down, the bigger tank will stop at nothing.

Tired of only running away and do nothing about the bigger tank, the smaller tank returned fire while moving. If only they realized how futile their efforts were.

"Tcheh! You serious now?" Tarma said mockingly.

"I know, right? Their pitiful shot only penetrated 2% of our armor!" Marco shouted mockingly. "Come on, bring it! Try to destroy our tank now!"

And with that, the bigger tank picked up speed and was gaining on the smaller tank. The smaller tank, on the other hand, was still driving at the same speed because that IS the highest speed that tank can drive. The bigger tank drove until they were just a few meters away from each other.

"Quick! Speed up! They're gaining on us!" Miho commanded while panicking.

"But this is the highest we can get!" Mako said as she panicked to drive the tank away from the pursuing tank behind them.

The bigger tank aimed down its turret towards the smaller tank thought it proved to be difficult as the smaller tank kept swaying left and right. But luckily for Marco and co., they found a pattern in the smaller tank's movements. So they set down their turret to a certain position. Marco loaded the cannon and when they have had a clear shot, he then released a shot towards the smaller tank. The shot hit the smaller tank at its behind and caused it to flip over over and over. The girls in the smaller tank braced themselves for impact. The tank kept rolling and flipping until it finally stopped, landing on its bottom.(Phew) Puffs of thick black smoke rose from the bottom of the tank. And then after a while, a white flag popped out from the tank, signalling their defeat.

"Yea-heah! We've defeated them!" Marco said while pumping his fist into the air.

"Alright. Now let's go see who's in there." Eri said in anticipation.

The four then got out of their tank and started heading towards the smaller tank. But they find the tank in serious condition. Smokes were everywhere and the tank is totally busted. What's worse is the tank is on fire. Despite the noises of the fire and the noises of wing flaps, they heard cries of help coming from somewhere. Closer inspection revealed that the screams of help are coming from the burning tank itself. While Marco likes to blow stuff up, he didn't like to kill people. So he ordered the other three to help him to open the entrance hatch and to get the tank pilots out as fast as possible.

Meanwhile inside the tank, Miho and the others were all covered in dust and dirt as the smoke filled the inside and reducing the chances of breathing. Mako, who has a weak heart and suffers from low blood pressure, has already passed out. Everyone tried to call for help, but they couldn't even raise their voices high enough as they kept on coughing out smoke and re-inhaled them. Miho then tried banging her fists into every inch of wall of tank. Of course it failed. What really trapped them inside is the jammed entrance hatch. It was jammed and can no longer be opened.

"Oh no. This is... *cough cough* the end, it seems?" After having exhausted all her energy, she lied down and waited for her life to be taken. That is until...

*CLANG!*

The four soldiers outside the tank finally managed to pry open the hatch and everyone inside the tank was safely rescued. After all of them are rescued, they quickly ran away from their tank, knowing it would explode soon. And soon enough, just as they reached the bigger tank, the smaller tank exploded. Miho, Saori, Hana, Yukari and Fio watched in horror as the tank exploded to bits.

*later*

Hana watched as Fio treats Mako while the others talked to each other and got to know them better.

"So that's what really happened, huh?" Marco said sheepishly while rubbing his neck.

"Sorry about that." Tarma apologized.

"And I'm sorry for your tank, girls. I guess Fio WAS right all along." Eri said sheepishly. She and the two men then received a scolding from Fio.

"See? I told you not to chase them down, but you wouldn't listen." Fio scolded the three.

"Yeah yeah, geez. You're starting to sound like an old lady, Fio." Tarma said mockingly.

"But really though. We're really sorry for your tank." Eri said in an sympathetic voice. But Miho, Saori and Yukari doesn't seem to hear her. "Look. I know you're sad and angry 'cause you've lost your only transportation and your belongings in there, so..." Eri was about to say something to them, but was cut off by Tarma.

"Hey hey hey! Don't touch, okay?" Tarma scolded Yukari.

"Wow! This tank is sooooo cool! I wonder from what country this beast originates." Yukari inspected the bigger tank from every inch and aspect, leaping and reappearing from one side to another in a flash.

"Well well..." Hana said while chuckling. "It looks like someone has her Tank Mode turned on."

"Tank Mode?" Fio asked.

"Yes. Well you can say that Yukari is a maniac when it comes to tank. Yeah, she really likes tank, does she?" Hana cheerfully explained.

"Oh, I see. So it's pretty much like Tarma's obsession of motorcars then." Fio then giggled in delight.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that that Yukari person acts a bit like Tarma when it comes to cars and stuff."

They both watched as Tarma gave Yukari a chase around the tank.

"Wow! A 500mm-rounded cannon. And some 55mm-rounded vulcan attached to its sides too. Oh cool. Its shape is like that of a minigun! Amazing!" Yukari stated as she wrote down on her notebook. "And a large headlight on the cannon. And what's this? Yeah! This is a telescope!"

"Will you stop running around stalking on my tank before I pound you to pieces? What's that? You want to be ground meat?" Tarma shouted in annoyance. And everyone there just laughed at the scene while Marco and Miho facepalmed themselves.

Not long after, they heard some police sirens from afar. But the sirens get louder fast and before they knew it, they were surrounded by robot cops and human cops. Marco, Tarma, Fio and Eri aimed their guns at them, but in return, the robots and cops also aimed down their machine guns and rockets and other weapons at them.

"Attention! Surrender now or you'll suffer the consequences!" a voice boomed out from nowhere. After a while, an old man in a butler uniform came out from in-between the cops. "Guards! Arrest these trespassers!" And then swarm after swarm of robot cops came rushing in after them and before long, they were all captured.

"What the hell?"

The tank was also "captured" and brought to somewhere else.

"B-B-But our tank!"

"Now, now. You do realize your wrongdoings, right?" the old man asked the nine(eight if you counted Mako out as she's passed out).

"OK. Firstly, I don't even know who you are, gramps. So back off! Second, what wrongdoings have we done anyway?" Marco shouted at the old man.

"My bad." he said while correcting his glasses' position. "Now allow me to introduce myself. I am Seishirou Klaus, the head butler of the Sanzenin Mansion."

"Yeah. And what does this 'Sanzenin' has anything to do with this again?" Tarma asked mockingly.

"And that's what I was about to tell you. You nine have trespassed in this large garden for who knows how long, which is a property of the Sanzenin Mansion." Klaus explained.

"This is a garden, you say?!" Everyone shouted in surprise. "It looks like a forest. And it's a deathtrap here." Eri shouted in disbelief.

"Yeah, we've been trapped in here for days, you know that?" Saori shouted.

"And also, you've destroyed a part of the garden, so you'd better be prepared as you'll go into a dread punishment!" he said with a serious tone.

"P-Punishment?" Miho shouted in surprise. "Please, sir. You gotta understand out situation. We've been lost in this forest, err... garden, for days and we are all hungry and tired."

"Besides, we have a sick child here, see?" Eri said while she lifted Mako for Klaus to see. Klaus inspected Mako for a while before clapping his hands for orders.

"Alright then, gentlemen. Bring this child into the nursery. While you guys bring them to the waiting room. We're going to have some serious interrogations with them later. But for now, report the situation to the Mistress." Klaus ordered the guards.

"Yes sir!" And with that, they left to carry out their orders as told. The eight are left to wonder what kind of torture will they be put into.

**[Loading...]**

"So you're telling me that you've been stuck in our garden for three days?" the blue-haired boy asked the eight travelers whom he had just saved just now.

"It's four days for me." Rumi corrected him.

"Wait, "garden"?!" Garen shouted in surprise.

"Well, for your information, butler, that "garden" of yours is like a freaking forest!" Yuri shouted at the blue-haired boy, making him flail his hands.

"There there. Just calm down, you guys." he said nervously. "But... While it may not be a garden-"

"Ha! He said it! I knew it! It's not a garden!" Neptune shouted while pointing at him.

"I said calm down. Just... calm down." He then cleared his throat, took a deep breath and fixed his tie's position before continuing. "Anyway, like I said, while it may not be a garden, it's actually a property of my Mistress's."

"So what you're saying is that that forest, along with all the monsters there are your Mistress's properties?" Strarf asked him puzzled.

"Monsters? So there are monsters residing there as well?"

"Wow. I can't believe I've been living in someone's property all my life." Freesia said while cupping her chin. "But that place is so huge I thought it was just another regular forest."

"Wow. Who would've thought that we've been stuck inside someone's plot of land the whole time?" Kirito said aloud.

"And to think that it took us like three days just to get out." Purple Heart continued.

And then the eight travelers have a chat with each other about the forest and this "Mistress" the blue-haired man was talking about, ignoring him and leaving him out of the conversation.

(Just calm down, Hayate. They're just tired, that's all.) the blue-haired boy thought to himself.

"Hayate!" a voice called out.

Hayate, the blue-haired boy, turned to the voice's direction to find a girl with twin-tailed golden hair dressed in a fancy dress coming down from the stairs. "Oh, Mistress."

"MISTRESS?!" the eight shouted in surprise and disbelief, seeing the little girl who is the so-called Mistress coming down the stairs.

"What's the ruckus down here? I can't even think myself straight." the girl said. She then turned towards the eight travelers. "And who are these people? What business are they here for?"

"Clam down, Mistress. It turns out that they have been stuck inside your tree farm you had in your backyard." he said casually.

"SO THAT WAS A FARM?!" the eight shouted again.

"What? These guys? I see. So it's no wonder the trees started to chop themselves down and explosions started appearing everywhere. So it was them." the girl said and turned her attention to them with a serious look.

"Oh no. I think she's on to us!" they thought.

"It's not much of a big deal anyway." she said casually.

"WHAT?!" the eight travelers and the butler shouted in unison.

"Besides, I've been wanting to get rid a bit of them to make a swimming pool." she stated casually. All the others just stood there, staring at her in disbelief with their mouths wide agape. "But in any case, you've damaged some of my properties, so you all must be punished."

No one dared to say a word as they had absolutely no idea what was happening and what was she talking about.

"Now now, Nagi. Don't tease them so much. They are tired after all." a maid said to her while she swept the floor. She turned to the eight and spoke to them. "Now why don't just give them a place to rest and-" And then the door went "BAM" as another butler knocked the door open and bringing with him nine people and two tanks. A blown-up tank and a fine tank with some scratches on it.

"Mistress, I have caught the culprits like you asked." he said to the girl while saluting her.

"Good. Now lock them up." the girl ordered him.

"Yes, Mistress. I shall do that now." the butler bowed before her and moved on before being stopped by the maid.

"Goodness, Klaus. What's the meaning of this?" she asked.

"Don't you worry, my dear Maria. As you can see, my robot cop-butlers have caught these nine in their scams to destroy our farm." he said.

"We did not destroy your- Wait, THAT WAS A FARM?!" Marco said in shock, learning that they were in a farm the whole time.

"Have you any proof of this, Klaus?" Maria asked Klaus.

"Well, do these look like proofs to you?" He then showed the tanks that they have caught.

"Oh, I see."

"Well, good job Klaus. As weird as it might be, I'm amazed by your success." Hayate then congratulated him.

"Just do excellent in your job, kid. Someday, you'll become as great as me." Klaus replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to bring these culprits to the prison."

"What? You serious? Prison?" Marco shouted in disbelief.

"Prison? But we've done nothing wrong." Miho said in disbelief.

"If this happens, then I'll never be able to get any boyfriends. WAAAHHH!" Saori cried.

And with that, they were brought away to somewhere else. Until Rumi stopped them as she recognized some of the people caught.

"Wait, is that you Marco?" Rumi asked the man she believes to be Marco.

"Yeah, that's m- Wait, Rumi?" Marco shouted in surprise. Fio, Eri and Tarma too turned towards Rumi and stared at her in disbelief.

"Rumi, is that really you?" Fio said.

"Rumi, it's us. Can you tell them to let us go?" Tarma commanded Rumi.

"Oi oi. No more talking." Klaus then brought them out elsewhere. After they had left, the room stayed quiet.

"So Rumi, do you know them or something?" Yuri decided to break out the silence by asking her the question.

"Yes. They're my friends in combat for your information." Rumi said while looking depressed.

"Oh? Okay then."

"Aww, don't you worry about it so much, Rumee. I'm sure they'll be released quite shortly or not be imprisoned at all." Neptune reassured her while giving her a thumb's up.

"But it's my friends we're talking about."

"She's right though." Purple Heart stood up to Neptune. "You need to relax a bit and loosen up your problems once in a while. Just relax and think about happy things."

"Ahem!" Hayate cleared his throat to gain the others' attention. "Okay, now that you're here from our farm, or forest as you might call it, you must be tired right?"

"So why don't you stay here for the day? Oh, I know. I'll prepare the meal for our guests here." Maria said before running off to the kitchen.

"Well, in that case I'll help you then." Hayate said before running off towards Maria.

"Hey, Hayate. Wait up!" Nagi called out to Hayate, but her calling was not heard by Hayate. Turning back to the eight, she felt scared for a bit as she felt a deadly aura rose around them.

"So you're the mistress, huh?" they asked.

"Well, of course I am. Duh!" she replied harshly. Before they could asked anymore questions, Nagi offered them a place to stay. "Well, since you're here, why don't I show you the way to the guests's room? It would be pretty rude for me to treat my guests rudely. And besides, *sniff* you guys reek!" Nagi then pinched her nose and fan the eight as if trying to blow away some smoke.

"Well, duh. We haven't had a bath in three days, stupid." Yuri replied harshly to Nagi.

"Hey, who you're calling stupid, huh?" Nagi shot back a harsh reply. And then they glared at each other for a long time.

"Now now. We don't want to start a fight here, now do we?" Garen said, breaking up the fight.

Letting out a sigh, Yuri admitted defeat. "Fine. You win."

"Hmph! It's not like I'm letting you off just yet, mister."

"Yuri."

"Huh?" Nagi tilted her head looking puzzled.

"Yuri Lowell. That's my name." Yuri said casually.

"Oh, is it introduction time already?" Neptune said playfully. "Well in that case, my name's Neptune."

"Rumi Aikawa."

"Kirito."

And yadda yadda yadda. Let's just skip to Nagi's introduction, shall we?

"Okay then. My name's Nagi Sanzenin. I'm the owner of this mansion and this plot of land for your information. But it's not like I'm introducing myself 'cause I want to, you know." She then crossed her arms and looked away from them.

"Hehe... It looks like we got ourselves a tsundere here." Neptune whispered to Purple Heart.

"You tell me."

"Hey, are you coming or not?" Nagi shouted.

"Okay, we're coming, "ma'am"." Rumi replied with a smirk.

**[Loading...]**

The scene shows some policemen at work around a shrine. And standing among them was a shrine maiden herself along with a girl dressed in a purple yukata.

"I'm telling you, it was over there one moment and it disappeared in the next." the shrine maiden in red told her friend in purple yukata.

"Oh, I see. So you think it might be the work of some ghosts, Reimu?" the girl asked her shrine maiden friend.

"No. I actually think it might be the work of a thief, but there's a possibility." Reimu said. "Say, Isumi. Who do you think would do this kind of stuff around here?" Reimu asked.

"Um... I'm not sure, but it could be someone who may have hated you for some reason. That's the only reason I can come up with." Isumi said.

"Man... Now who would be hating me around here?" Reimu let out a heavy sigh.

The scene transitions to a group of policemen searching around for data when a man in a formal uniform came into view.

"Inspector Megure, we still haven't found any clue yet." said one of the policemen to the inspector.

"Then keep searching until you find one." Megure ordered the policemen. After that, the policemen returned to work. Megure then walked towards Reimu and asked her about how the disappearance happened. She replied with the same answer she gave to Isumi.

"So, how much did you lose?" Megure asked her.

When confronted with the question, Reimu became nervous and started sweating a lot. "Um... Well, that is..."

"Oh, what am I doing? I know it's rude for me to ask you about how much you have in your box as you yourself have a hard time remembering the exact amount, right?" Megure said before Reimu could answer him.

"Y-Yeah, that's right. I couldn't remember how much money I had in that box, but it sure is a lot though." Reimu blatantly replied.

"Well then, I'll be going then." With that, Megure left. Seeing that he has left, Reimu let out a sigh of relief.

(Phew! I can't believe I almost told him how I had only like a few gallars in the box. Good grief.)

**[Loading...]**

"So, Wright. You really do want to catch that criminal, don't you?" IF asked without the slightest care in the world as she, as usual, kept playing with her cellphone.

"Of course. There's no way I can let someone like that just run freely around town." Wright said with a proud tone. "Besides, I'm here for another case."

"What case is it now?"

"Well... A friend of a certain friend of mine told me that one of his friends have gone missing, so he asked me to find her while I'm on it." Wright explained.

IF didn't answer. Instead she just kept quiet and continue to play with her cellphone.

(Man, just how much battery does her cellphone have? She's been playing it since yesterday.) Wright thought to himself, sweatdropping at the same time. And then he saw the cellphone's screen gone black. "So, it can run out of battery."

"Hpmh, whatever." IF then did something and what seems to be the SIM card came out of the cellphone. She stored the used cellphone and pulled out a new one from one of the cellphone cases. She then inserted the SIM card from somewhere on the cellphone and guess what? Yeah, she went back into playing with her cellphone.

"*sigh* So much for finally stopping to play with the cellphone..." And then they continued their quest in finding the criminal.

* * *

_And so, we've reached the end of our story for this chapter. It looks like our main group of eight have finally gotten themselves out of the forest which turns out to be a farm in possession of the daughter of a billionaire named Nagi Sanzenin. While the story might have ended for them, but what will actually happens to the others? Will Jaster, Prinny and Youmu escape the castle prison? And Will Reimu discover the culprit behind her donation box's disappearance? And will Phoenix Wright along with IF find the evidence that they're looking for? Find out in the next chapter._

* * *

**Man, finally I got this chapter done. Sure I said it might be shorter, but it turns out it was pretty much the same length as the previous two chapters. Hehe... my bad. Hey, do you think my writing's gotten worse? 'Cause it is in my point of perspective. I seem to be at loss of words more often than before. I wonder why though. And also, the section where "You can listen to these BGM's on their respective marked points" is removed 'cause starting from this chapter here on, I'm not going to include the music bullshits. It's gonna take me a few more hours to get it and find all the BGMs' names.**

**Well, anyway, as usual fell free to report me of any mistakes found in this chapter. Thank you for your support and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter.**

* * *

**Characters' Origins**

Tales of Vesperia  
Hyperdimension Neptunia  
Sword Art Online  
Busou Shinki  
League of Legends  
Rogue Galaxy  
Disgaea  
Tales of Graces  
Fairy Bloom Freesia  
Metal Slug  
Girls und Panzer  
Touhou  
Hayate the Combat Butler  
Detective Conan  
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney


End file.
